diff --git a/hyperdb-mcp/src/engine.rs b/hyperdb-mcp/src/engine.rs
index deb6ba1..a6cd0e4 100644
--- a/hyperdb-mcp/src/engine.rs
+++ b/hyperdb-mcp/src/engine.rs
@@ -426,13 +426,27 @@ impl Engine {
         }))
     }
 
-    /// Whether the backing `hyperd` process is still alive.
-    /// In daemon mode, checks the daemon health port.
+    /// Whether the backing `hyperd` is currently reachable.
+    ///
+    /// In local mode, delegates to the owned `HyperProcess`. In daemon mode,
+    /// probes the cached libpq `daemon_endpoint` directly with a short-timeout
+    /// TCP connect — the same endpoint queries run against. This reflects
+    /// *current* liveness of the resource the engine actually depends on, and
+    /// is robust to two failure modes the health-port PING is not:
+    ///   - the health port being unreachable (stale `daemon.json`,
+    ///     port-scan-adopted daemon, firewall) while the libpq endpoint serves;
+    ///   - the daemon restarting `hyperd` on a new port, leaving the cached
+    ///     endpoint stale (the probe then correctly reports `false`).
+    ///
+    /// Falls back to discovery (`daemon.json` + health-port PING) only when no
+    /// endpoint has been cached yet (before the first connection attempt).
     pub fn is_running(&self) -> bool {
         if let Some(ref hyper) = self.hyper {
             hyper.is_running()
+        } else if let Some(ref endpoint) = self.daemon_endpoint {
+            probe_endpoint_alive(endpoint)
         } else {
-            // Daemon mode: check if daemon is still reachable
+            // No cached endpoint yet — fall back to discovery.
             daemon::discovery::discover().is_some()
         }
     }
@@ -1871,6 +1885,25 @@ impl Drop for Engine {
     }
 }
 
+/// Cheap liveness probe for a daemon-mode `hyperd`: attempt a short-timeout
+/// TCP connect to `endpoint` (`host:port`). Returns `true` if the connect
+/// succeeds (something is listening). A bare connect is sufficient here — we
+/// only need to know the port the engine's libpq connection targets is still
+/// accepting connections, not to perform a full protocol round-trip.
+fn probe_endpoint_alive(endpoint: &str) -> bool {
+    use std::net::ToSocketAddrs;
+    const PROBE_TIMEOUT: std::time::Duration = std::time::Duration::from_millis(300);
+    match endpoint.to_socket_addrs() {
+        // Probe each resolved address, short-circuiting on the first that
+        // accepts a connection. `daemon_endpoint` is normally a single
+        // `127.0.0.1:PORT`, so this is one connect in the common case.
+        Ok(mut addrs) => {
+            addrs.any(|addr| std::net::TcpStream::connect_timeout(&addr, PROBE_TIMEOUT).is_ok())
+        }
+        Err(_) => false,
+    }
+}
+
 fn bootstrap_public_schema(connection: &Connection) -> Result<(), McpError> {
     connection
         .execute_command("CREATE SCHEMA IF NOT EXISTS public")
diff --git a/hyperdb-mcp/src/main.rs b/hyperdb-mcp/src/main.rs
index 4c80d1d..b2e9426 100644
--- a/hyperdb-mcp/src/main.rs
+++ b/hyperdb-mcp/src/main.rs
@@ -230,6 +230,18 @@ async fn run_mcp_mode(cli: Cli) -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
     );
 
     let server = HyperMcpServer::with_no_daemon(persistent_str, cli.read_only, cli.no_daemon);
+    // Eagerly initialize the engine before accepting tool calls so observer
+    // tools like `status` report full stats on the first call (issue #138).
+    // Errors are logged and swallowed inside `warm_up_engine` — startup
+    // proceeds even if hyperd is momentarily unreachable. Run on a blocking
+    // thread: warm-up does synchronous I/O (and may spawn the daemon) and
+    // would otherwise stall a runtime worker. Nothing else runs on the
+    // runtime yet (serve() is below), so this only delays startup.
+    let server = tokio::task::spawn_blocking(move || {
+        server.warm_up_engine();
+        server
+    })
+    .await?;
     let service = server.serve(rmcp::transport::io::stdio()).await?;
     service.waiting().await?;
 
diff --git a/hyperdb-mcp/src/server.rs b/hyperdb-mcp/src/server.rs
index c2478cb..5e35770 100644
--- a/hyperdb-mcp/src/server.rs
+++ b/hyperdb-mcp/src/server.rs
@@ -1122,6 +1122,30 @@ impl HyperMcpServer {
         Ok(guard)
     }
 
+    /// Eagerly initialize the engine at server startup, before any tool call
+    /// arrives. This makes read-only observer tools like `status` able to
+    /// report full stats on the very first call without having to trigger
+    /// initialization themselves — `status` stays a pure, non-blocking
+    /// observer (honoring issue #118).
+    ///
+    /// Errors are logged and swallowed rather than propagated: if `hyperd` is
+    /// unreachable at startup the server still comes up, and the first
+    /// data-plane tool call will retry initialization via `with_engine`.
+    pub fn warm_up_engine(&self) {
+        match self.ensure_engine() {
+            Ok(_guard) => {
+                tracing::info!("engine initialized eagerly at startup");
+            }
+            Err(e) => {
+                tracing::warn!(
+                    err = %e.message,
+                    "eager engine initialization failed at startup; \
+                     will retry on first data-plane tool call"
+                );
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
     /// Idempotently create and reconcile `_table_catalog` on first call
     /// per engine. No-op in bare or read-only mode (read-only can't
     /// mutate; bare callers never wanted the catalog in the first place).
@@ -2957,17 +2981,18 @@ impl HyperMcpServer {
         // operation on the same session (issue #118). If the engine lock is held
         // by another tool call, return a degraded-but-instant response with the
         // metadata available without the engine (daemon health, paths, watchers).
+        //
+        // `status` is a pure observer: it never initializes the engine. The
+        // engine is initialized eagerly at server startup (see
+        // `warm_up_engine`) and lazily by data-plane tools via `with_engine`,
+        // so by the time a client can call any tool the engine is normally
+        // already `Some`. If it is still `None` here (eager init failed because
+        // hyperd was down at startup, or a ConnectionLost just dropped it), we
+        // report the degraded response honestly rather than blocking to init.
         let Ok(guard) = self.engine.try_lock() else {
-            // Engine is locked by another tool call — return a degraded
-            // response rather than blocking. The caller sees `engine_busy:
-            // true` and knows table/disk stats are unavailable this call.
             return Self::ok_content(self.status_degraded());
         };
         let Some(engine) = guard.as_ref() else {
-            // Engine not yet initialized (first call after server start, or
-            // after a ConnectionLost drop). Return the degraded response rather
-            // than an error — the first data-plane call will init the engine,
-            // and subsequent `status` calls will get the full response.
             return Self::ok_content(self.status_degraded());
         };
         self.ensure_catalog_ready(engine);