diff --git a/hospexplorer/ask/kb_connector.py b/hospexplorer/ask/kb_connector.py
index 77f87b8..b374a55 100644
--- a/hospexplorer/ask/kb_connector.py
+++ b/hospexplorer/ask/kb_connector.py
@@ -113,6 +113,47 @@ def add_pdf_to_kb(file_bytes, filename, title, url=None):
     raise last_exc
 
 
+def download_kb_pdf(doc_id):
+    """Download the original PDF bytes for a KB document.
+
+    Calls GET /docs/{doc_id}/file on the MCP KB server. Returns
+    (filename, bytes) on 200, or (None, None) on 404 — the KB has no
+    local file for that document and the caller should fall back to a
+    tracking-only record. Other HTTP error statuses raise via
+    response.raise_for_status(); transport errors raise via httpx.
+    """
+    headers = {
+        "Authorization": f"Bearer {settings.KB_MCP_JWT_TOKEN}",
+    }
+    endpoint = f"{settings.KB_MCP_HOST}/docs/{doc_id}/file"
+
+    with httpx.Client() as client:
+        response = client.get(
+            endpoint,
+            headers=headers,
+            timeout=settings.KB_MCP_PDF_TIMEOUT,
+        )
+
+    if response.status_code == 404:
+        return None, None
+    response.raise_for_status()
+
+    filename = f"kb_doc_{doc_id}.pdf"
+    cd = response.headers.get("content-disposition", "")
+    # prefer KB filename
+    if "filename=" in cd:
+        try:
+            raw = cd.split("filename=", 1)[1].split(";", 1)[0].strip()
+            if raw.startswith('"') and raw.endswith('"'):
+                raw = raw[1:-1]
+            if raw:
+                filename = raw
+        except Exception:
+            pass
+
+    return filename, response.content
+
+
 def delete_kb_document(doc_id):
     """Delete a document from the MCP KB server by its ID.
 
diff --git a/hospexplorer/ask/migrations/0014_alter_pdfresource_file.py b/hospexplorer/ask/migrations/0014_alter_pdfresource_file.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7597d8b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hospexplorer/ask/migrations/0014_alter_pdfresource_file.py
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+# Generated by Django 6.0.2 on 2026-05-27 22:29
+
+from django.db import migrations, models
+
+
+class Migration(migrations.Migration):
+
+    dependencies = [
+        ('ask', '0013_pdfresource_original_filename'),
+    ]
+
+    operations = [
+        migrations.AlterField(
+            model_name='pdfresource',
+            name='file',
+            field=models.FileField(blank=True, null=True, upload_to='kb_pdfs/'),
+        ),
+    ]
diff --git a/hospexplorer/ask/models.py b/hospexplorer/ask/models.py
index 2552cda..7ed7390 100644
--- a/hospexplorer/ask/models.py
+++ b/hospexplorer/ask/models.py
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ class Meta:
 
 
 class PDFResource(Resource):
-    file = models.FileField(upload_to="kb_pdfs/")
+    file = models.FileField(upload_to="kb_pdfs/", null=True, blank=True)
     # original upload name, kept so re-uploads can be skipped — Django renames file.name on collision
     original_filename = models.CharField(max_length=255, blank=True, default="")
     mcp_kb_document_id = models.IntegerField(null=True, blank=True, help_text="Document ID returned by the MCP Knowledge Base.")
diff --git a/hospexplorer/ask/templates/kb/resources.html b/hospexplorer/ask/templates/kb/resources.html
index c856509..ea9374c 100644
--- a/hospexplorer/ask/templates/kb/resources.html
+++ b/hospexplorer/ask/templates/kb/resources.html
@@ -263,15 +263,27 @@ <h5 class="kb-section-heading">PDFs in KB but not tracked internally</h5>
                             <thead>
                                 <tr>
                                     <th>Title</th>
-                                    {% if can_delete_pdf %}<th>Actions</th>{% endif %}
+                                    {% if can_add_pdf or can_delete_pdf %}<th>Actions</th>{% endif %}
                                 </tr>
                             </thead>
                             <tbody>
                                 <template x-for="doc in untrackedPdfs" :key="doc.doc_id">
                                     <tr class="kb-row-untracked">
                                         <td x-text="doc.title"></td>
-                                        {% if can_delete_pdf %}
+                                        {% if can_add_pdf or can_delete_pdf %}
                                         <td class="text-nowrap align-middle">
+                                            {% if can_add_pdf %}
+                                            <button
+                                                @click="trackPdfInHopper(doc)"
+                                                :disabled="loadingKey === 'track-pdf-' + doc.doc_id"
+                                                class="btn btn-sm btn-primary-maroon kb-action-btn me-1">
+                                                <span x-show="loadingKey !== 'track-pdf-' + doc.doc_id">Track in Hopper</span>
+                                                <span x-show="loadingKey === 'track-pdf-' + doc.doc_id">
+                                                    <span class="spinner-border spinner-border-sm me-1"></span> Tracking...
+                                                </span>
+                                            </button>
+                                            {% endif %}
+                                            {% if can_delete_pdf %}
                                             <button
                                                 @click="removeFromKb(doc)"
                                                 :disabled="loadingKey === 'remove-' + doc.doc_id"
@@ -281,6 +293,7 @@ <h5 class="kb-section-heading">PDFs in KB but not tracked internally</h5>
                                                     <span class="spinner-border spinner-border-sm me-1"></span> Removing...
                                                 </span>
                                             </button>
+                                            {% endif %}
                                         </td>
                                         {% endif %}
                                     </tr>
@@ -541,6 +554,49 @@ <h5 class="kb-section-heading">PDFs in KB but not tracked internally</h5>
             this.loadingKey = null;
         },
 
+        async trackPdfInHopper(doc) {
+            this.loadingKey = `track-pdf-${doc.doc_id}`;
+            try {
+                const response = await fetch('{% url "ask:kb-add-pdf-resource" %}', {
+                    method: 'POST',
+                    headers: {
+                        'X-CSRFToken': '{{ csrf_token }}',
+                        'Content-Type': 'application/json',
+                    },
+                    body: JSON.stringify({ doc_id: doc.doc_id, title: doc.title }),
+                });
+                const data = await response.json();
+                if (data.success) {
+                    this.untrackedPdfs = this.untrackedPdfs.filter(d => d.doc_id !== doc.doc_id);
+                    this.pdfStatusMap[data.id] = 'in_kb';
+
+                    const tbody = document.querySelector('#pdfs-pane .kb-table tbody');
+                    if (tbody) {
+                        const tr = document.createElement('tr');
+                        tr.className = 'kb-row-maroon';
+                        const filename = data.filename || '';
+                        const truncFilename = filename.length > 40 ? filename.slice(0, 37) + '...' : filename;
+                        const now = new Date().toLocaleString('en-US', { month: 'short', day: 'numeric', year: 'numeric', hour: 'numeric', minute: '2-digit' });
+                        tr.innerHTML = `
+                            <td>${data.title}</td>
+                            <td class="text-muted">${truncFilename}</td>
+                            <td class="text-muted">${now}</td>
+                            <td>In Sync</td>
+                            {% if can_change_pdf %}<td></td>{% endif %}
+                        `;
+                        tbody.prepend(tr);
+                    }
+
+                    this.showToast(`Now tracking "${doc.title}" in Hopper.`);
+                } else {
+                    this.showToast(data.error || 'Failed to track PDF.', 'error');
+                }
+            } catch (e) {
+                this.showToast('Failed to connect to server.', 'error');
+            }
+            this.loadingKey = null;
+        },
+
         async removeFromKb(doc) {
             this.loadingKey = `remove-${doc.doc_id}`;
             try {
diff --git a/hospexplorer/ask/tests.py b/hospexplorer/ask/tests.py
index 749b619..c51517a 100644
--- a/hospexplorer/ask/tests.py
+++ b/hospexplorer/ask/tests.py
@@ -1,12 +1,14 @@
+import json
 import shutil
 import tempfile
 from unittest.mock import patch
 
-from django.contrib.auth.models import User
+from django.conf import settings
+from django.contrib.auth.models import Permission, User
 from django.core.files.base import ContentFile
 from django.test import TestCase, override_settings
 
-from ask.models import PDFResource
+from ask.models import PDFResource, TermsAcceptance
 
 
 class PDFResourceDeletionTests(TestCase):
@@ -48,3 +50,152 @@ def test_successful_file_removal_is_not_flagged(self):
         pdf.file.save("report.pdf", ContentFile(b"%PDF-1.4 test"), save=True)
         pdf.delete()
         self.assertFalse(pdf.file_deletion_failed)
+
+
+class KBAddPdfResourceViewTests(TestCase):
+    """The Track-in-Hopper endpoint for untracked KB PDFs
+
+    Verifies both branches: (a) KB serves the file back, in which case the
+    new PDFResource has the bytes attached; (b) KB returns 404, in which
+    case the row is created as tracking-only (file=None) — legacy KB docs
+    ingested before local_path was recorded land in this branch.
+    """
+
+    URL = "/hopper/ask/kb/add-pdf-resource/"
+
+    def setUp(self):
+        media_root = tempfile.mkdtemp()
+        self.addCleanup(shutil.rmtree, media_root, ignore_errors=True)
+        override = override_settings(MEDIA_ROOT=media_root)
+        override.enable()
+        self.addCleanup(override.disable)
+
+        self.user = User.objects.create_user("curator", password="pw")
+        self.user.user_permissions.add(
+            Permission.objects.get(codename="add_pdfresource")
+        )
+        TermsAcceptance.objects.create(
+            user=self.user, terms_version=settings.TERMS_VERSION
+        )
+        self.client.force_login(self.user)
+
+    def _post(self, body=None, raw=None):
+        payload = raw if raw is not None else json.dumps(body or {})
+        return self.client.post(self.URL, data=payload, content_type="application/json")
+
+    @patch("ask.views.download_kb_pdf")
+    def test_attaches_file_when_kb_returns_bytes(self, mock_download):
+        mock_download.return_value = ("1780-report.pdf", b"%PDF-1.4 fake")
+        resp = self._post({"doc_id": 99, "title": "Fresh doc"})
+        self.assertEqual(resp.status_code, 200)
+        pdf = PDFResource.objects.get(pk=resp.json()["id"])
+        self.assertEqual(pdf.mcp_kb_document_id, 99)
+        self.assertTrue(pdf.file)
+        self.assertEqual(pdf.file.read(), b"%PDF-1.4 fake")
+        self.assertEqual(pdf.original_filename, "1780-report.pdf")
+        self.assertEqual(pdf.status_message, "")
+
+    @patch("ask.views.download_kb_pdf")
+    def test_creates_tracking_only_when_kb_has_no_file(self, mock_download):
+        mock_download.return_value = (None, None)
+        resp = self._post({"doc_id": 42, "title": "Legacy doc"})
+        self.assertEqual(resp.status_code, 200)
+        pdf = PDFResource.objects.get(pk=resp.json()["id"])
+        self.assertEqual(pdf.mcp_kb_document_id, 42)
+        self.assertFalse(pdf.file)
+        self.assertEqual(
+            pdf.status_message, "Tracked from KB; file not stored locally."
+        )
+
+    @patch("ask.views.download_kb_pdf")
+    def test_blank_title_falls_back_to_placeholder(self, mock_download):
+        mock_download.return_value = (None, None)
+        resp = self._post({"doc_id": 7})
+        self.assertEqual(resp.status_code, 200)
+        pdf = PDFResource.objects.get(pk=resp.json()["id"])
+        self.assertEqual(pdf.title, "Untitled KB doc 7")
+
+    @patch("ask.views.download_kb_pdf")
+    def test_duplicate_doc_id_refused(self, mock_download):
+        mock_download.return_value = (None, None)
+        first = self._post({"doc_id": 42, "title": "first"})
+        self.assertEqual(first.status_code, 200)
+        second = self._post({"doc_id": 42, "title": "second"})
+        self.assertEqual(second.status_code, 400)
+        self.assertIn("Already tracked", second.json()["error"])
+        self.assertEqual(PDFResource.objects.filter(mcp_kb_document_id=42).count(), 1)
+
+    def test_missing_doc_id_rejected(self):
+        resp = self._post({"title": "no id"})
+        self.assertEqual(resp.status_code, 400)
+        self.assertIn("doc_id", resp.json()["error"])
+
+    def test_non_integer_doc_id_rejected(self):
+        resp = self._post({"doc_id": "not-an-int", "title": "x"})
+        self.assertEqual(resp.status_code, 400)
+
+    def test_malformed_json_rejected(self):
+        resp = self._post(raw="not json")
+        self.assertEqual(resp.status_code, 400)
+
+    def test_permission_required(self):
+        noperm = User.objects.create_user("viewer", password="pw")
+        TermsAcceptance.objects.create(
+            user=noperm, terms_version=settings.TERMS_VERSION
+        )
+        self.client.force_login(noperm)
+        resp = self._post({"doc_id": 42, "title": "x"})
+        self.assertEqual(resp.status_code, 403)
+
+    @patch("ask.views.download_kb_pdf")
+    def test_response_payload_powers_the_dom_injection(self, mock_download):
+        # The frontend needs id, title, and filename to render the new row
+        # without a full page reload
+        mock_download.return_value = ("1780-foo.pdf", b"bytes")
+        resp = self._post({"doc_id": 11, "title": "Fresh"})
+        body = resp.json()
+        self.assertTrue(body["success"])
+        self.assertEqual(body["title"], "Fresh")
+        self.assertTrue(body["filename"])
+        self.assertIn("id", body)
+
+
+class DownloadKBPdfHelperTests(TestCase):
+    """Unit tests for the new kb_connector.download_kb_pdf helper."""
+
+    def _stub_response(self, *, status_code, content=b"", headers=None):
+        resp = type("Resp", (), {})()
+        resp.status_code = status_code
+        resp.content = content
+        resp.headers = headers or {}
+        resp.raise_for_status = lambda: None
+        return resp
+
+    @patch("ask.kb_connector.httpx.Client")
+    def test_returns_filename_and_bytes_on_200(self, mock_client_cls):
+        mock_client = mock_client_cls.return_value.__enter__.return_value
+        mock_client.get.return_value = self._stub_response(
+            status_code=200,
+            content=b"%PDF fake",
+            headers={"content-disposition": 'attachment; filename="1780-foo.pdf"'},
+        )
+        from ask.kb_connector import download_kb_pdf
+        self.assertEqual(download_kb_pdf(5), ("1780-foo.pdf", b"%PDF fake"))
+
+    @patch("ask.kb_connector.httpx.Client")
+    def test_returns_none_pair_on_404(self, mock_client_cls):
+        mock_client = mock_client_cls.return_value.__enter__.return_value
+        mock_client.get.return_value = self._stub_response(status_code=404)
+        from ask.kb_connector import download_kb_pdf
+        self.assertEqual(download_kb_pdf(99), (None, None))
+
+    @patch("ask.kb_connector.httpx.Client")
+    def test_falls_back_to_synthetic_filename_when_header_missing(self, mock_client_cls):
+        mock_client = mock_client_cls.return_value.__enter__.return_value
+        mock_client.get.return_value = self._stub_response(
+            status_code=200, content=b"bytes"
+        )
+        from ask.kb_connector import download_kb_pdf
+        fname, content = download_kb_pdf(7)
+        self.assertEqual(fname, "kb_doc_7.pdf")
+        self.assertEqual(content, b"bytes")
diff --git a/hospexplorer/ask/urls.py b/hospexplorer/ask/urls.py
index e098a24..2248954 100644
--- a/hospexplorer/ask/urls.py
+++ b/hospexplorer/ask/urls.py
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
     re_path(r"^kb/$", views.kb_resources, name="kb-resources"),
     re_path(r"^kb/compare/$", views.kb_compare, name="kb-compare"),
     re_path(r"^kb/add-resource/$", views.kb_add_resource, name="kb-add-resource"),
+    re_path(r"^kb/add-pdf-resource/$", views.kb_add_pdf_resource, name="kb-add-pdf-resource"),
     re_path(r"^kb/remove-from-kb/$", views.kb_remove_from_kb, name="kb-remove-from-kb"),
     re_path(r"^kb/add-to-kb/$", views.kb_add_website_to_mcp, name="kb-add-to-kb"),
     re_path(r"^kb/upload-pdf/$", views.kb_upload_pdf, name="kb-upload-pdf"),
diff --git a/hospexplorer/ask/views.py b/hospexplorer/ask/views.py
index ecdf0e1..6135717 100644
--- a/hospexplorer/ask/views.py
+++ b/hospexplorer/ask/views.py
@@ -13,7 +13,9 @@
 
 from ask.models import Conversation, QARecord, QueryTask, TermsAcceptance, WebsiteResource, PDFResource
 from ask.tasks import run_llm_task
-from ask.kb_connector import list_kb_documents, add_website_to_kb, add_pdf_to_kb, delete_kb_document
+from django.core.files.base import ContentFile
+
+from ask.kb_connector import list_kb_documents, add_website_to_kb, add_pdf_to_kb, delete_kb_document, download_kb_pdf
 
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
@@ -345,6 +347,69 @@ def kb_add_resource(request):
     return JsonResponse({"success": True, "id": resource.id})
 
 
+@login_required
+@require_POST
+def kb_add_pdf_resource(request):
+    """Create a PDFResource record for an untracked KB PDF document.
+
+    This tracks a KB PDF in Hopper's internal database without re-ingesting
+    or downloading the file — the document already exists in the KB, which
+    remains the source of truth for the bytes. The new PDFResource has no
+    local file attached.
+    """
+
+    if not request.user.has_perm("ask.add_pdfresource"):
+        return JsonResponse({"success": False, "error": "Permission denied."}, status=403)
+
+    try:
+        body = json.loads(request.body)
+    except json.JSONDecodeError:
+        return JsonResponse({"success": False, "error": "Invalid request body."}, status=400)
+
+    doc_id = body.get("doc_id")
+    title = (body.get("title") or "").strip()
+
+    try:
+        doc_id = int(doc_id)
+    except (TypeError, ValueError):
+        return JsonResponse({"success": False, "error": "doc_id is required."}, status=400)
+
+    if PDFResource.objects.filter(mcp_kb_document_id=doc_id).exists():
+        return JsonResponse({"success": False, "error": "Already tracked in Hopper."}, status=400)
+
+    try:
+        filename, content = download_kb_pdf(doc_id)
+    except httpx.ConnectError:
+        return JsonResponse({"success": False, "error": "Could not connect to the Knowledge Base server."}, status=503)
+    except httpx.HTTPStatusError as e:
+        return JsonResponse({"success": False, "error": f"Knowledge Base server returned an error (HTTP {e.response.status_code})."}, status=502)
+
+    file_field = None
+    original_filename = ""
+    status_message = "Tracked from KB; file not stored locally."
+    if content is not None:
+        file_field = ContentFile(content, name=filename)
+        original_filename = filename
+        status_message = ""
+
+    resource = PDFResource.objects.create(
+        title=title or f"Untitled KB doc {doc_id}",
+        file=file_field,
+        original_filename=original_filename,
+        mcp_kb_document_id=doc_id,
+        creator=request.user,
+        modifier=request.user,
+        status=PDFResource.Status.SUCCESS,
+        status_message=status_message,
+    )
+    return JsonResponse({
+        "success": True,
+        "id": resource.id,
+        "title": resource.title,
+        "filename": resource.file.name if resource.file else "",
+    })
+
+
 @login_required
 @require_POST
 def kb_remove_from_kb(request):