diff --git a/.github/workflows/tests.yml b/.github/workflows/tests.yml
index 3d2ab3f..6d48023 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/tests.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/tests.yml
@@ -90,3 +90,26 @@ jobs:
           case "$out" in
             *Traceback*) echo "::error::base install printed a traceback"; exit 1 ;;
           esac
+      - name: the installed server must find an index relative to the user's directory
+        # The tests run from the source tree, and the steps above only check that
+        # the commands start. Neither reproduces how people actually launch the MCP
+        # server: from their OWN directory, with a relative BRAIN_INDEX_DIR, against
+        # the installed wheel. The recall child used to run with cwd set to the
+        # package directory inside site-packages, so "index" resolved there and the
+        # user's index was never found. CI stayed green on exactly that bug, so this
+        # step reproduces it: a minimal index in /tmp/userdir, launch from there.
+        # Index found => brain_ask gets past loading and stops at the missing
+        # [embeddings] extra. Index NOT found => "need an embedding index".
+        run: |
+          mkdir -p /tmp/userdir/index
+          cd /tmp/userdir
+          /tmp/clean/bin/python -c "import numpy as np, pickle; np.save('index/_brain_e5.npy', np.zeros((1, 4), dtype='float32')); pickle.dump([{'path': 'a.md', 'chunk_idx': 0}], open('index/_brain_e5_meta.pkl', 'wb'))"
+          out=$(env -u PYTHONPATH BRAIN_INDEX_DIR=index /tmp/clean/bin/sgm-mcp --test "agent memory" 2>&1 || true)
+          echo "$out"
+          case "$out" in
+            *"need an embedding index"*) echo "::error::installed server looked for the index outside the user's directory"; exit 1 ;;
+          esac
+          case "$out" in
+            *"sqlite-graph-memory[embeddings]"*) echo "index found from the user's directory" ;;
+            *) echo "::error::unexpected output from the installed server"; exit 1 ;;
+          esac
diff --git a/src/sqlite_graph_memory/mcp_server.py b/src/sqlite_graph_memory/mcp_server.py
index 1cf2ee4..dd0d7d7 100644
--- a/src/sqlite_graph_memory/mcp_server.py
+++ b/src/sqlite_graph_memory/mcp_server.py
@@ -131,7 +131,6 @@ def run_recall(query: str, mode: str = "associative") -> tuple[str, bool]:
         call_env["PYTHONPATH"] = f"{src_dir}{os.pathsep}{existing_pp}" if existing_pp else src_dir
         res = subprocess.run(
             cmd,
-            cwd=str(ROOT_DIR),
             env=call_env,
             capture_output=True,
             text=True,
diff --git a/tests/test_mcp_script_mode.py b/tests/test_mcp_script_mode.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..86f4b20
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_mcp_script_mode.py
@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+"""Script-mode and working-directory behaviour of the MCP server.
+
+Kept in its own file so it does not collide with edits to test_mcp_server.py.
+Runs offline: no model, no index, no network.
+"""
+import json
+import os
+import subprocess
+import sys
+from pathlib import Path
+
+SRC = Path(__file__).resolve().parents[1] / "src"
+sys.path.insert(0, str(SRC))
+from sqlite_graph_memory import __version__  # noqa: E402
+from sqlite_graph_memory import mcp_server  # noqa: E402
+
+SCRIPT = SRC / "sqlite_graph_memory" / "mcp_server.py"
+
+
+def test_script_mode_starts_without_installed_package(tmp_path):
+    """`python src/sqlite_graph_memory/mcp_server.py` must not need the package on sys.path.
+
+    Python puts the script's own directory (not src/) on sys.path, so an
+    absolute `from sqlite_graph_memory import ...` at import time crashed with
+    ModuleNotFoundError before the server answered anything (issue #24).
+    `-S` drops site-packages so an installed or editable copy cannot mask it.
+    """
+    env = {k: v for k, v in os.environ.items() if k != "PYTHONPATH"}
+    req = {"jsonrpc": "2.0", "id": 1, "method": "initialize", "params": {}}
+    res = subprocess.run(
+        [sys.executable, "-S", str(SCRIPT)],
+        input=json.dumps(req) + "\n",
+        capture_output=True, text=True, cwd=str(tmp_path), env=env, timeout=30,
+    )
+    assert res.returncode == 0, res.stderr
+    resp = json.loads(res.stdout.strip().splitlines()[-1])
+    assert resp["result"]["serverInfo"]["version"] == __version__
+
+
+def test_recall_subprocess_inherits_server_cwd(tmp_path, monkeypatch):
+    """Relative BRAIN_INDEX_DIR / TURNSTATE_DB must resolve against the user's cwd.
+
+    On an installed wheel the package dir is site-packages/sqlite_graph_memory;
+    running brain_ask there made `BRAIN_INDEX_DIR=index` miss the user's ./index.
+    """
+    work = tmp_path / "work"
+    work.mkdir()
+    stub = tmp_path / "stub_brain_ask.py"
+    stub.write_text(
+        "import os, pathlib\n"
+        "pathlib.Path(os.environ['BRAIN_ANSWER_OUT']).write_text(os.getcwd(), encoding='utf-8')\n",
+        encoding="utf-8",
+    )
+    monkeypatch.setattr(mcp_server, "_brain_ask_cmd", lambda: [sys.executable, str(stub)])
+    monkeypatch.chdir(work)
+    text, is_error = mcp_server.run_recall("anything")
+    assert is_error is False, text
+    assert Path(text).resolve() == work.resolve()