diff --git a/src/app/api/health/route.ts b/src/app/api/health/route.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ea2172f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/app/api/health/route.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+// GET /api/health — liveness by default; add ?strict=1 for readiness.
+//
+// A dead LLM key must never fail the check a kill-and-restart decision reads:
+// restarting the process can't fix someone else's outage. So the plain check
+// always returns 200 once the process is up, carrying `llm` as information
+// only. `?strict=1` is the opt-in for a caller that actually wants to know
+// whether analysis currently works — it 503s only when the chain has been
+// down for `downAfter` consecutive requests.
+
+import { NextRequest, NextResponse } from "next/server";
+import { getLLMHealth } from "@/lib/health";
+
+export async function GET(req: NextRequest) {
+  const llm = getLLMHealth();
+  const strict = req.nextUrl.searchParams.get("strict") === "1";
+  const status = strict && llm.status === "down" ? 503 : 200;
+
+  return NextResponse.json(
+    {
+      success: true,
+      data: {
+        status: status === 200 ? "healthy" : "unhealthy",
+        llm,
+        timestamp: new Date().toISOString(),
+      },
+    },
+    { status },
+  );
+}
diff --git a/src/lib/health.test.ts b/src/lib/health.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..be8acbe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/lib/health.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+/**
+ * `/api/health` had nothing to report about the LLM chain until now — an
+ * outage was invisible to it despite `callLLM` already walking a fallback
+ * when a vendor refuses. This pins the state machine that check depends on.
+ * Mirrors kivvi/evig/hirnli/botsmann/aoz-housing's own copy.
+ */
+import { beforeEach, describe, expect, it } from "vitest";
+import { getLLMHealth, recordLLMFailure, recordLLMSuccess, resetLLMHealth } from "./health";
+
+beforeEach(() => resetLLMHealth());
+
+describe("llm health tracker", () => {
+  it("starts unknown, before anything has been observed", () => {
+    expect(getLLMHealth().status).toBe("unknown");
+  });
+
+  it("is ok after a success", () => {
+    recordLLMSuccess();
+    expect(getLLMHealth().status).toBe("ok");
+  });
+
+  it("is degraded on the first failures, not down", () => {
+    recordLLMFailure(new Error("LLM chain exhausted"));
+    expect(getLLMHealth().status).toBe("degraded");
+  });
+
+  it("is down once failures are consistent", () => {
+    for (let i = 0; i < 3; i += 1) recordLLMFailure(new Error("boom"));
+    const health = getLLMHealth();
+    expect(health.status).toBe("down");
+    expect(health.consecutiveFailures).toBe(3);
+    expect(health.lastError).toBe("boom");
+  });
+
+  it("recovers to ok on the next success", () => {
+    for (let i = 0; i < 5; i += 1) recordLLMFailure(new Error("boom"));
+    expect(getLLMHealth().status).toBe("down");
+    recordLLMSuccess();
+    const health = getLLMHealth();
+    expect(health.status).toBe("ok");
+    expect(health.consecutiveFailures).toBe(0);
+    expect(health.lastError).toBeNull();
+  });
+});
diff --git a/src/lib/health.ts b/src/lib/health.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6701b4a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/lib/health.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+/**
+ * LLM chain health — did the last analysis actually reach a model?
+ *
+ * `callLLM` already knows whether every link in the chain refused; this just
+ * remembers that fact between requests so `/api/health` can say so before a
+ * reader does. Mirrors the same `ai-kit` tracker adopted fleet-wide (evig,
+ * kivvi, botsmann, hirnli, aoz-housing).
+ */
+
+import { createHealthTracker } from "ai-kit";
+
+const tracker = createHealthTracker({ downAfter: 3 });
+
+export function recordLLMSuccess(): void {
+  tracker.recordSuccess();
+}
+
+export function recordLLMFailure(error: unknown): void {
+  tracker.recordFailure(error);
+}
+
+export function getLLMHealth() {
+  return tracker.getHealth();
+}
+
+export function resetLLMHealth(): void {
+  tracker.reset();
+}
diff --git a/src/lib/llm.ts b/src/lib/llm.ts
index d88a381..c5694d4 100644
--- a/src/lib/llm.ts
+++ b/src/lib/llm.ts
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@
 // still gets the model-level fallback, which is what rot actually looks like.
 
 import { freeChain, usableChain, type Env, type Link } from "ai-kit";
+import { recordLLMFailure, recordLLMSuccess } from "./health";
 
 /** Prefix for this app's per-vendor model overrides (TRUTHSEEKER_GROQ_MODELS…). */
 const CHAIN_PREFIX = "TRUTHSEEKER";
@@ -76,7 +77,9 @@ export async function callLLM(prompt: string, opts: LLMOptions = {}): Promise<st
   // on every request.
   const links = configuredLinks();
   if (links.length === 0) {
-    throw new Error(noProviderMessage());
+    const error = new Error(noProviderMessage());
+    recordLLMFailure(error);
+    throw error;
   }
 
   const { maxTokens = 4000, temperature = 0.2, timeoutMs = 35_000, systemPrompt, jsonMode } = opts;
@@ -150,6 +153,7 @@ export async function callLLM(prompt: string, opts: LLMOptions = {}): Promise<st
         lastError = new Error(`LLM returned empty content at ${link.provider.id}/${link.model}`);
         continue;
       }
+      recordLLMSuccess();
       return content;
     } catch (err) {
       // Timeout or transport failure. Same reasoning: the next link is a
@@ -165,17 +169,21 @@ export async function callLLM(prompt: string, opts: LLMOptions = {}): Promise<st
   // what to do about it.
   const configuredVendors = new Set(links.map((l) => l.provider.keyEnv));
   if (rejected.size > 0 && rejected.size === configuredVendors.size) {
-    throw new Error(
+    const error = new Error(
       `${rejectedKeyMessage(rejected)} ${secondVendorHint(configuredVendors)}`.trim(),
     );
+    recordLLMFailure(error);
+    throw error;
   }
 
   // Otherwise: name the whole chain, not just the last link. "gpt-oss-120b
   // failed" sends the reader after one model; "all 2 links failed" says the
   // shape of the problem is the key, the network or the budget.
-  throw new Error(
+  const exhausted = new Error(
     `LLM chain exhausted — all ${links.length} link(s) failed. Last: ${lastError?.message ?? "unknown"}`,
   );
+  recordLLMFailure(exhausted);
+  throw exhausted;
 }
 
 /** HTTP statuses that mean "this key", not "this model". */