diff --git a/control-pipeline/scripts/backfill_license_rule.py b/control-pipeline/scripts/backfill_license_rule.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b0d312d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/control-pipeline/scripts/backfill_license_rule.py
@@ -0,0 +1,184 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+"""Backfill license_rule on canonical_controls by inheriting from parent.
+
+Background
+==========
+
+Audit (audit_license_classification.py) showed that 279,384 of 314,811 rows
+in compliance.canonical_controls have NULL license_rule. Drilling in:
+
+- 261,980 of those (94%) have a parent_control_uuid whose parent already
+  carries a non-NULL license_rule. The pass0b decomposition pipeline did
+  not propagate the rule to its child controls — this is a clear inheritance
+  bug, fixable without any classification decisions.
+- 16,617 have a parent that itself has no license_rule (transitive case).
+  Inheriting iteratively converges to either rule-set or root-orphan.
+- 787 have no parent at all (decomposition roots). These need cluster-based
+  manual classification (see Strategy Notes at the bottom of this file).
+
+This script runs the inheritance fix in three idempotent stages and
+prints per-stage counts before any write happens.
+
+Usage::
+
+    # Always dry-run first:
+    python3 scripts/backfill_license_rule.py --db-host 100.80.114.48 \\
+        --db-password breakpilot123 --dry-run
+
+    # If counts look right:
+    python3 scripts/backfill_license_rule.py --db-host 100.80.114.48 \\
+        --db-password breakpilot123 --apply
+
+The script is safe to rerun — it only touches rows where license_rule
+IS NULL.
+"""
+
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import argparse
+import sys
+
+
+def parse_args() -> argparse.Namespace:
+    p = argparse.ArgumentParser(description=__doc__)
+    p.add_argument("--db-host", default="100.80.114.48")
+    p.add_argument("--db-port", type=int, default=5432)
+    p.add_argument("--db-user", default="breakpilot")
+    p.add_argument("--db-name", default="breakpilot_db")
+    p.add_argument("--db-password", required=True)
+    g = p.add_mutually_exclusive_group(required=True)
+    g.add_argument("--dry-run", action="store_true")
+    g.add_argument("--apply", action="store_true")
+    p.add_argument("--max-iterations", type=int, default=5,
+                   help="Cap on inheritance iterations to avoid loops")
+    return p.parse_args()
+
+
+# Stage 1: direct parent has license_rule — single UPDATE.
+# Stage 2: iterative — parent did not have it, but a grandparent does.
+#          We loop until no more rows can be filled or max-iterations.
+# Stage 3: residual rows with no resolvable parent. Report them clustered
+#          by category/pattern_id so the user can classify by family.
+
+SQL_REPORT_NULLS = """
+SET search_path TO compliance, public;
+SELECT
+  CASE WHEN cc.parent_control_uuid IS NULL THEN 'no_parent'
+       WHEN p.license_rule IS NULL THEN 'parent_null'
+       ELSE 'parent_set' END AS bucket,
+  COUNT(*) AS n
+FROM canonical_controls cc
+LEFT JOIN canonical_controls p ON cc.parent_control_uuid = p.id
+WHERE cc.license_rule IS NULL
+GROUP BY 1 ORDER BY 2 DESC;
+"""
+
+SQL_INHERIT_FROM_PARENT = """
+SET search_path TO compliance, public;
+UPDATE canonical_controls cc
+SET license_rule = p.license_rule, updated_at = NOW()
+FROM canonical_controls p
+WHERE cc.parent_control_uuid = p.id
+  AND cc.license_rule IS NULL
+  AND p.license_rule IS NOT NULL;
+"""
+
+SQL_REPORT_ORPHAN_CLUSTERS = """
+SET search_path TO compliance, public;
+SELECT
+  COALESCE(category, '(null)') AS category,
+  COALESCE(pattern_id, '(null)') AS pattern_id,
+  COALESCE(generation_strategy, '(null)') AS gen,
+  COUNT(*) AS n
+FROM canonical_controls
+WHERE license_rule IS NULL AND parent_control_uuid IS NULL
+GROUP BY 1, 2, 3 ORDER BY n DESC LIMIT 25;
+"""
+
+
+def print_bucket(rows, label: str) -> None:
+    print(f"\n## {label}")
+    total = 0
+    for bucket, n in rows:
+        print(f"  {bucket:12}  {n:>8}")
+        total += n
+    print(f"  {'TOTAL':12}  {total:>8}")
+
+
+def main() -> int:
+    args = parse_args()
+    try:
+        import psycopg2
+    except ImportError:
+        print("error: psycopg2 not installed", file=sys.stderr)
+        return 2
+
+    conn = psycopg2.connect(
+        host=args.db_host, port=args.db_port, user=args.db_user,
+        dbname=args.db_name, password=args.db_password,
+    )
+    conn.autocommit = False
+    cur = conn.cursor()
+
+    print("=" * 60)
+    print(" Backfill — license_rule via parent inheritance")
+    print(f" Mode: {'DRY-RUN' if args.dry_run else 'APPLY'}")
+    print("=" * 60)
+
+    # Initial bucket report
+    cur.execute(SQL_REPORT_NULLS)
+    rows = cur.fetchall()
+    print_bucket(rows, "Initial NULL distribution")
+
+    if args.dry_run:
+        # Print what the FIRST inherit pass would resolve (without writing)
+        cur.execute(
+            "SET search_path TO compliance, public; "
+            "SELECT p.license_rule, COUNT(*) "
+            "FROM canonical_controls cc "
+            "JOIN canonical_controls p ON cc.parent_control_uuid = p.id "
+            "WHERE cc.license_rule IS NULL AND p.license_rule IS NOT NULL "
+            "GROUP BY 1 ORDER BY 1;"
+        )
+        print("\n## First inherit-pass would fill:")
+        for rule, n in cur.fetchall():
+            print(f"  rule={rule}  {n:>8} rows")
+
+        # Show orphan clusters that would remain
+        cur.execute(SQL_REPORT_ORPHAN_CLUSTERS)
+        print("\n## Orphan clusters (no parent + no rule, top 25):")
+        for cat, pid, gen, n in cur.fetchall():
+            print(f"  cat={cat[:20]:20}  pat={pid[:20]:20}  gen={gen[:20]:20}  n={n}")
+        print("\nNo writes performed. Use --apply to execute.")
+        conn.rollback()
+        return 0
+
+    # Apply mode — iterative inheritance
+    total_updated = 0
+    for i in range(1, args.max_iterations + 1):
+        cur.execute(SQL_INHERIT_FROM_PARENT)
+        updated = cur.rowcount
+        total_updated += updated
+        print(f"\n  iteration {i}: {updated} rows updated")
+        if updated == 0:
+            break
+
+    conn.commit()
+    print(f"\n✓ Total rows backfilled: {total_updated}")
+
+    # Final bucket report
+    cur.execute(SQL_REPORT_NULLS)
+    print_bucket(cur.fetchall(), "Remaining NULL distribution")
+
+    cur.execute(SQL_REPORT_ORPHAN_CLUSTERS)
+    rows = cur.fetchall()
+    if rows:
+        print("\n## Orphan clusters still need classification:")
+        for cat, pid, gen, n in rows:
+            print(f"  cat={cat[:20]:20}  pat={pid[:20]:20}  gen={gen[:20]:20}  n={n}")
+
+    return 0
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    raise SystemExit(main())
diff --git a/control-pipeline/scripts/backfill_qdrant_license_payload.py b/control-pipeline/scripts/backfill_qdrant_license_payload.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..72225a0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/control-pipeline/scripts/backfill_qdrant_license_payload.py
@@ -0,0 +1,203 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+"""Backfill ``license_rule`` payload field into Qdrant atomic_controls_dedup
+and related compliance collections, sourced from canonical_controls in Postgres.
+
+The audit (audit_license_classification.py) surfaced that Qdrant collections
+holding canonical-control vectors (notably ``atomic_controls_dedup``) carry no
+license_rule payload at all, even though the underlying Postgres table is now
+fully classified. This script joins the two via ``control_uuid`` and patches the
+Qdrant payload in batches.
+
+Usage::
+
+    python3 scripts/backfill_qdrant_license_payload.py \\
+        --pg-host 100.80.114.48 --pg-password breakpilot123 \\
+        --qdrant http://100.80.114.48:6333 \\
+        --collection atomic_controls_dedup \\
+        --dry-run
+
+    # apply
+    python3 scripts/backfill_qdrant_license_payload.py ... --apply
+
+Notes
+-----
+- ``control_uuid`` lives in the payload of atomic_controls_dedup. For other
+  collections that key the canonical control by a different field, override with
+  ``--uuid-field``.
+- Qdrant ``set_payload`` is keyed by point id, not payload field. We resolve
+  UUID → point id by a paginated scroll-and-filter pass, then issue grouped
+  set_payload requests per license_rule (3 batches per collection).
+"""
+
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import argparse
+import json
+import sys
+import time
+from typing import Iterator
+from urllib import request as urllib_request
+
+
+def parse_args() -> argparse.Namespace:
+    p = argparse.ArgumentParser(description=__doc__)
+    p.add_argument("--pg-host", default="100.80.114.48")
+    p.add_argument("--pg-port", type=int, default=5432)
+    p.add_argument("--pg-user", default="breakpilot")
+    p.add_argument("--pg-name", default="breakpilot_db")
+    p.add_argument("--pg-password", required=True)
+    p.add_argument("--qdrant", default="http://100.80.114.48:6333")
+    p.add_argument("--qdrant-api-key", default="",
+                   help="API key for managed Qdrant (Production)")
+    p.add_argument("--collection", default="atomic_controls_dedup")
+    p.add_argument("--uuid-field", default="control_uuid",
+                   help="Payload field used for lookup (control_uuid or regulation_id)")
+    p.add_argument("--lookup", choices=["canonical_controls", "regulation_registry"],
+                   default="canonical_controls",
+                   help="Postgres table to resolve the lookup against")
+    p.add_argument("--batch-size", type=int, default=500)
+    g = p.add_mutually_exclusive_group(required=True)
+    g.add_argument("--dry-run", action="store_true")
+    g.add_argument("--apply", action="store_true")
+    return p.parse_args()
+
+
+def fetch_rule_by_uuid(args) -> dict[str, int]:
+    """Pull lookup-key → license_rule mapping from Postgres.
+
+    Source table is chosen by ``--lookup``:
+    - canonical_controls: id (UUID) → license_rule, for atomic_controls_dedup
+    - regulation_registry: regulation_id → license_rule, for document chunks
+    """
+    import psycopg2
+    conn = psycopg2.connect(
+        host=args.pg_host, port=args.pg_port, user=args.pg_user,
+        dbname=args.pg_name, password=args.pg_password,
+    )
+    cur = conn.cursor()
+    cur.execute("SET search_path TO compliance, public;")
+    if args.lookup == "regulation_registry":
+        cur.execute(
+            "SELECT regulation_id, license_rule FROM regulation_registry "
+            "WHERE license_rule IS NOT NULL"
+        )
+    else:
+        cur.execute(
+            "SELECT id::text, license_rule FROM canonical_controls "
+            "WHERE license_rule IS NOT NULL"
+        )
+    mapping = {row[0]: int(row[1]) for row in cur.fetchall()}
+    conn.close()
+    return mapping
+
+
+def _headers(api_key: str = "") -> dict:
+    h = {"Content-Type": "application/json"}
+    if api_key:
+        h["api-key"] = api_key
+    return h
+
+
+def scroll_collection(qdrant: str, collection: str, uuid_field: str, api_key: str = "") -> Iterator[dict]:
+    """Yield (point_id, uuid_value, has_rule_already) tuples."""
+    next_offset = None
+    while True:
+        body = {"limit": 1000, "with_payload": True, "with_vector": False}
+        if next_offset is not None:
+            body["offset"] = next_offset
+        req = urllib_request.Request(
+            f"{qdrant}/collections/{collection}/points/scroll",
+            data=json.dumps(body).encode(),
+            headers=_headers(api_key),
+        )
+        with urllib_request.urlopen(req, timeout=60) as r:
+            payload = json.loads(r.read())
+        result = payload.get("result", {})
+        for pt in result.get("points", []):
+            pl = pt.get("payload", {}) or {}
+            yield {
+                "id": pt["id"],
+                "uuid": pl.get(uuid_field),
+                "has_rule": "license_rule" in pl,
+            }
+        next_offset = result.get("next_page_offset")
+        if next_offset is None:
+            break
+
+
+def set_payload_batch(qdrant: str, collection: str, point_ids: list, rule: int, api_key: str = "") -> int:
+    """POST set_payload for a batch of point IDs with a single license_rule."""
+    body = {
+        "payload": {"license_rule": rule},
+        "points": point_ids,
+    }
+    req = urllib_request.Request(
+        f"{qdrant}/collections/{collection}/points/payload?wait=true",
+        data=json.dumps(body).encode(),
+        headers=_headers(api_key),
+        method="POST",
+    )
+    with urllib_request.urlopen(req, timeout=120) as r:
+        resp = json.loads(r.read())
+    if resp.get("status") != "ok":
+        raise RuntimeError(f"set_payload failed: {resp}")
+    return len(point_ids)
+
+
+def main() -> int:
+    args = parse_args()
+    print("Loading canonical_controls → license_rule mapping…")
+    rule_by_uuid = fetch_rule_by_uuid(args)
+    print(f"  Postgres returned {len(rule_by_uuid)} classified controls")
+
+    print(f"Scrolling Qdrant collection {args.collection!r}…")
+    by_rule: dict[int, list] = {1: [], 2: [], 3: []}
+    points_total = 0
+    points_with_uuid = 0
+    points_already_set = 0
+    points_no_match = 0
+
+    for pt in scroll_collection(args.qdrant, args.collection, args.uuid_field, args.qdrant_api_key):
+        points_total += 1
+        uuid = pt["uuid"]
+        if not uuid:
+            continue
+        points_with_uuid += 1
+        if pt["has_rule"]:
+            points_already_set += 1
+            continue
+        rule = rule_by_uuid.get(uuid)
+        if rule is None:
+            points_no_match += 1
+            continue
+        if rule not in by_rule:
+            continue
+        by_rule[rule].append(pt["id"])
+
+    print(f"  total points scanned: {points_total}")
+    print(f"  with {args.uuid_field}: {points_with_uuid}")
+    print(f"  already had license_rule: {points_already_set}")
+    print(f"  uuid not found in Postgres: {points_no_match}")
+    print(f"  to set per rule: rule1={len(by_rule[1])} rule2={len(by_rule[2])} rule3={len(by_rule[3])}")
+
+    if args.dry_run:
+        print("\nDRY-RUN: no writes performed. Use --apply to execute.")
+        return 0
+
+    total_written = 0
+    for rule, ids in by_rule.items():
+        if not ids:
+            continue
+        print(f"\nWriting license_rule={rule} to {len(ids)} points (batch {args.batch_size})…")
+        for i in range(0, len(ids), args.batch_size):
+            chunk = ids[i:i + args.batch_size]
+            n = set_payload_batch(args.qdrant, args.collection, chunk, rule, args.qdrant_api_key)
+            total_written += n
+            print(f"    batch {i // args.batch_size + 1}: {n} points (cumulative {total_written})")
+            time.sleep(0.05)
+    print(f"\nWrote license_rule on {total_written} Qdrant points in {args.collection}")
+    return 0
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    raise SystemExit(main())