diff --git a/scripts/ingest.ts b/scripts/ingest.ts
index 1d65da83df..808e9eb00f 100644
--- a/scripts/ingest.ts
+++ b/scripts/ingest.ts
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ function logIngest(sourceId: string, type: string, title: string): void {
 }
 
 // ─── Constants ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-const KB_ROOT = join(__dirname, "..", "knowledge-base");
+import { KB_ROOT } from "./lib/kb-root";
 const CONTENT_THRESHOLD = 3000; // words
 
 // ─── CLI arg parsing ───────────────────────────────────────────────────
@@ -393,6 +393,29 @@ async function main(): Promise<void> {
       break;
     }
 
+    case "paste": {
+      const { ingestPaste } = await import("./lib/ingest/paste.js");
+
+      try {
+        const result = await ingestPaste(url, KB_ROOT);
+        console.log(`SUCCESS: Source created as ${result.sourceId}`);
+        console.log();
+        logIngest(result.sourceId, "paste", result.title);
+        meta("Type", "paste");
+        meta("Title", result.title);
+        meta("Word count", result.wordCount.toLocaleString());
+        if (domains.length > 0) {
+          meta("Existing domains", domains.join(", "));
+        }
+        meta("Source file", result.sourcePath);
+        console.log(`Raw copy saved to ${result.rawPath}.`);
+      } catch (err: unknown) {
+        console.error(err instanceof Error ? err.message : String(err));
+        process.exit(1);
+      }
+      break;
+    }
+
     case "image": {
       const { ingestImage } = await import("./lib/ingest/image.js");
       const result = await ingestImage(url, KB_ROOT);
diff --git a/scripts/lib/ingest/audio.ts b/scripts/lib/ingest/audio.ts
index 76a6f3f9d0..b74fffde5c 100644
--- a/scripts/lib/ingest/audio.ts
+++ b/scripts/lib/ingest/audio.ts
@@ -82,11 +82,29 @@ function transcribe(filePath: string): WhisperOutput {
   const whisper = resolveWhisper();
   const outputDir = join(tmpdir(), `whisper-${Date.now()}`);
 
-  execFileSync(
-    whisper,
-    [filePath, "--model", "base", "--language", "en", "--output_format", "json", "--output_dir", outputDir],
-    { encoding: "utf-8", stdio: ["pipe", "pipe", "pipe"], maxBuffer: 50 * 1024 * 1024 },
-  );
+  // Configurable + auto-detecting. The previous hardcoded
+  // `--model base --language en` confabulated on non-English audio (forcing
+  // English on the weakest model produced fluent hallucination + repetition
+  // loops). Defaults: a stronger model and per-file language auto-detection
+  // (omit --language). Override via env, e.g. ZUHN_WHISPER_TASK=translate to
+  // emit English from any source language.
+  const model = process.env.ZUHN_WHISPER_MODEL ?? "small";
+  const task = process.env.ZUHN_WHISPER_TASK ?? "transcribe";
+  const args = [
+    filePath,
+    "--model", model,
+    "--task", task,
+    "--output_format", "json",
+    "--output_dir", outputDir,
+  ];
+  const language = process.env.ZUHN_WHISPER_LANGUAGE;
+  if (language) args.push("--language", language); // else Whisper auto-detects
+
+  execFileSync(whisper, args, {
+    encoding: "utf-8",
+    stdio: ["pipe", "pipe", "pipe"],
+    maxBuffer: 50 * 1024 * 1024,
+  });
 
   // Whisper writes {basename_without_ext}.json in output_dir
   const base = basename(filePath);
diff --git a/scripts/lib/ingest/detect.test.ts b/scripts/lib/ingest/detect.test.ts
index 82cb28240f..693ccb5a11 100644
--- a/scripts/lib/ingest/detect.test.ts
+++ b/scripts/lib/ingest/detect.test.ts
@@ -51,8 +51,13 @@ describe("detectType", () => {
   it("detects local PDF paths", () => {
     expect(detectType("/path/to/document.pdf")).toBe("pdf");
   });
-  it("throws for unsupported local file types", () => {
-    expect(() => detectType("/path/to/file.txt")).toThrow(/Unsupported local file type/);
+  it("detects local text/markdown as paste", () => {
+    expect(detectType("/path/to/notes.txt")).toBe("paste");
+    expect(detectType("/tmp/gtm-atlas.md")).toBe("paste");
+    expect(detectType("/path/to/essay.markdown")).toBe("paste");
+  });
+  it("throws for genuinely unsupported local file types", () => {
+    expect(() => detectType("/path/to/archive.zip")).toThrow(/Unsupported local file type/);
   });
 });
 
diff --git a/scripts/lib/ingest/detect.ts b/scripts/lib/ingest/detect.ts
index 3e48a8f8d2..2883c27f44 100644
--- a/scripts/lib/ingest/detect.ts
+++ b/scripts/lib/ingest/detect.ts
@@ -1,9 +1,13 @@
-export type ContentType = "youtube" | "reddit" | "blog" | "pdf" | "audio" | "image";
+export type ContentType = "youtube" | "reddit" | "blog" | "pdf" | "audio" | "image" | "paste";
 
 const TRACKING_PARAMS = ["utm_source", "utm_medium", "utm_campaign", "utm_term", "utm_content", "ref", "si", "source"];
 
 const AUDIO_EXTENSIONS = [".mp3", ".wav", ".m4a", ".aac", ".ogg", ".flac", ".webm"];
 const IMAGE_EXTENSIONS = [".jpg", ".jpeg", ".png", ".heic", ".webp", ".gif", ".svg", ".tiff"];
+// Local plain-text / markdown is a sanctioned "paste" source: high-signal
+// content captured by hand (essays behind JS sites, transcripts, paywalled
+// pieces) that has no scrapeable URL. Handled by lib/ingest/paste.ts.
+const TEXT_EXTENSIONS = [".txt", ".md", ".markdown", ".text"];
 
 export function normalizeUrl(urlString: string): string {
   const url = new URL(urlString);
@@ -24,6 +28,7 @@ export function detectType(input: string): ContentType {
     if (AUDIO_EXTENSIONS.some((ext) => lower.endsWith(ext))) return "audio";
     if (IMAGE_EXTENSIONS.some((ext) => lower.endsWith(ext))) return "image";
     if (lower.endsWith(".pdf")) return "pdf";
+    if (TEXT_EXTENSIONS.some((ext) => lower.endsWith(ext))) return "paste";
     throw new Error(`Unsupported local file type: ${input}`);
   }
 
diff --git a/scripts/lib/ingest/paste.test.ts b/scripts/lib/ingest/paste.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..0268e3342f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/lib/ingest/paste.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,77 @@
+import { describe, it, expect, beforeEach, afterEach } from "vitest";
+import { mkdtemp, rm, writeFile, readFile, stat } from "node:fs/promises";
+import { join } from "node:path";
+import { tmpdir } from "node:os";
+import matter from "gray-matter";
+import { ingestPaste } from "./paste";
+
+describe("ingestPaste", () => {
+  let tempDir: string;
+  let kbRoot: string;
+
+  beforeEach(async () => {
+    tempDir = await mkdtemp(join(tmpdir(), "paste-test-"));
+    kbRoot = join(tempDir, "knowledge-base");
+  });
+
+  afterEach(async () => {
+    await rm(tempDir, { recursive: true, force: true });
+  });
+
+  it("copies the verbatim original to sources/paste/raw/", async () => {
+    const f = join(tempDir, "notes.md");
+    await writeFile(f, "# Hello\n\nbody text here");
+    const result = await ingestPaste(f, kbRoot);
+    const rawStat = await stat(result.rawPath);
+    expect(rawStat.isFile()).toBe(true);
+    expect(result.rawPath).toContain("sources/paste/raw/");
+    expect(result.rawPath).toMatch(/\.txt$/);
+  });
+
+  it("creates source .md with valid paste frontmatter", async () => {
+    const f = join(tempDir, "notes.md");
+    await writeFile(f, "# My Title\n\nsome content with five words");
+    const result = await ingestPaste(f, kbRoot);
+    const parsed = matter(await readFile(result.sourcePath, "utf-8"));
+    expect(parsed.data.id).toMatch(/^SRC-\d{6}-[A-F0-9]{4}$/);
+    expect(parsed.data.type).toBe("paste");
+    expect(parsed.data.title).toBe("My Title");
+    expect(parsed.data.date_ingested).toMatch(/^\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}$/);
+    expect(parsed.data.insight_count).toBe(0);
+    expect(typeof parsed.data.word_count).toBe("number");
+    // No url field for a local paste (gray-matter cannot serialize undefined)
+    expect(parsed.data.url).toBeUndefined();
+  });
+
+  it("preserves the full text as the source body", async () => {
+    const f = join(tempDir, "doc.txt");
+    const body = "# Doc\n\nthe quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog";
+    await writeFile(f, body);
+    const result = await ingestPaste(f, kbRoot);
+    const parsed = matter(await readFile(result.sourcePath, "utf-8"));
+    expect(parsed.content).toContain("the quick brown fox");
+  });
+
+  it("derives title from the first H1 when present", async () => {
+    const f = join(tempDir, "whatever-filename.md");
+    await writeFile(f, "# Real Document Title\n\ncontent");
+    const result = await ingestPaste(f, kbRoot);
+    expect(result.title).toBe("Real Document Title");
+  });
+
+  it("falls back to a humanized filename when there is no H1", async () => {
+    const f = join(tempDir, "gtm-atlas-notes.txt");
+    await writeFile(f, "no heading here, just prose content");
+    const result = await ingestPaste(f, kbRoot);
+    expect(result.title).toBe("gtm atlas notes");
+  });
+
+  it("returns sourceId matching the SRC- pattern", async () => {
+    const f = join(tempDir, "x.md");
+    await writeFile(f, "# X\n\nbody");
+    const result = await ingestPaste(f, kbRoot);
+    expect(result.sourceId).toMatch(/^SRC-\d{6}-[A-F0-9]{4}$/);
+    expect(result.sourcePath).toContain("sources/paste/");
+    expect(result.sourcePath).toMatch(/\.md$/);
+  });
+});
diff --git a/scripts/lib/ingest/paste.ts b/scripts/lib/ingest/paste.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..d37ab1052d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/lib/ingest/paste.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,78 @@
+import { join, basename, extname } from "node:path";
+import { mkdir, copyFile, writeFile, readFile } from "node:fs/promises";
+import matter from "gray-matter";
+import { generateSourceId } from "../generate-id";
+import { slugify } from "./slug";
+
+export interface PasteResult {
+  sourceId: string;
+  sourcePath: string;
+  rawPath: string;
+  title: string;
+  wordCount: number;
+}
+
+function wordCount(text: string): number {
+  return text.split(/\s+/).filter(Boolean).length;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Derive a title: the first markdown H1 if present, otherwise a humanized
+ * filename. Keeps provenance honest — the title is the document's own, not
+ * something invented at extraction time.
+ */
+function deriveTitle(text: string, filePath: string): string {
+  const h1 = text.match(/^#\s+(.+?)\s*$/m);
+  if (h1?.[1]) return h1[1].trim();
+  const base = basename(filePath);
+  const stem = base.slice(0, base.length - extname(base).length);
+  const humanized = stem.replace(/[-_]+/g, " ").trim();
+  return humanized.length > 0 ? humanized : "untitled paste";
+}
+
+/**
+ * Ingest a local plain-text / markdown file as a "paste" source.
+ *
+ * Mirrors lib/ingest/pdf.ts: copy the verbatim original into sources/paste/
+ * raw/, write a source .md whose body is the full clean text (like the blog
+ * and reddit handlers) with gray-matter frontmatter. No `url` field — paste
+ * sources have no scrapeable origin, and gray-matter cannot serialize
+ * undefined (same reason pdf.ts omits url for local files).
+ */
+export async function ingestPaste(
+  input: string,
+  kbRoot?: string,
+): Promise<PasteResult> {
+  const root = kbRoot ?? join(__dirname, "../../..", "knowledge-base");
+  const rawDir = join(root, "sources", "paste", "raw");
+  const sourceDir = join(root, "sources", "paste");
+
+  await mkdir(rawDir, { recursive: true });
+  await mkdir(sourceDir, { recursive: true });
+
+  const text = (await readFile(input, "utf-8")).trim();
+  const title = deriveTitle(text, input);
+  const slug = slugify(title);
+
+  const rawPath = join(rawDir, `${slug}.txt`);
+  await copyFile(input, rawPath);
+
+  const sourceId = generateSourceId(slug, input);
+  const today = new Date().toISOString().slice(0, 10);
+  const wc = wordCount(text);
+
+  const sourceData: Record<string, string | number> = {
+    id: sourceId,
+    type: "paste",
+    title,
+    date_ingested: today,
+    insight_count: 0,
+    word_count: wc,
+  };
+
+  const sourceMd = matter.stringify(text, sourceData);
+  const sourcePath = join(sourceDir, `${slug}.md`);
+  await writeFile(sourcePath, sourceMd, "utf-8");
+
+  return { sourceId, sourcePath, rawPath, title, wordCount: wc };
+}