diff --git a/.beads/.local_version b/.beads/.local_version
index ae6dd4e..8298bb0 100644
--- a/.beads/.local_version
+++ b/.beads/.local_version
@@ -1 +1 @@
-0.29.0
+0.43.0
diff --git a/src/qmd.ts b/src/qmd.ts
index 342d3f4..f508914 100755
--- a/src/qmd.ts
+++ b/src/qmd.ts
@@ -1379,6 +1379,13 @@ async function indexFiles(pwd?: string, globPattern: string = DEFAULT_GLOB, coll
     seenPaths.add(path);
 
     const content = await Bun.file(filepath).text();
+
+    // Skip empty files - nothing useful to index
+    if (!content.trim()) {
+      processed++;
+      continue;
+    }
+
     const hash = await hashContent(content);
     const title = extractTitle(content, relativeFile);