diff --git a/app/rag/importer.py b/app/rag/importer.py
index 67e68a8..b97729e 100644
--- a/app/rag/importer.py
+++ b/app/rag/importer.py
@@ -387,7 +387,7 @@ async def _index_file(
 ) -> None:
     """Upsert one file: doc row + chunk rows + embeddings, one transaction."""
     settings = llm.settings
-    content = full_path.read_text(encoding="utf-8", errors="replace")
+    content = full_path.read_text(encoding="utf-8", errors="replace").replace("\x00", "")
     digest = hashlib.sha256(content.encode("utf-8")).hexdigest()
     doc = session.scalar(select(Document).where(Document.source == source, Document.path == rel))
     if doc is not None and doc.content_hash == digest: