diff --git a/src/mcp/mcp.c b/src/mcp/mcp.c
index ae5b5c31..ab782c6e 100644
--- a/src/mcp/mcp.c
+++ b/src/mcp/mcp.c
@@ -3176,6 +3176,42 @@ static char *handle_search_code(cbm_mcp_server_t *srv, const char *args) {
         return cbm_mcp_text_result("path or file_pattern contains invalid characters", true);
     }
 
+    /* ── Phase 0.5: Multi-word → regex conversion ───────────── */
+    /* If pattern contains whitespace and is not already a regex, convert to a
+     * regex that matches all words in order: "foo bar baz" → "foo.*bar.*baz".
+     * This avoids requiring the exact phrase as a contiguous substring. */
+    if (!use_regex && strchr(pattern, ' ')) {
+        size_t plen = strlen(pattern);
+        /* Worst case: every char is a space → ".*" between each char */
+        char *regex_pat = malloc(plen * 3 + 1);
+        if (regex_pat) {
+            char *dst = regex_pat;
+            const char *src = pattern;
+            bool in_space = false;
+            while (*src) {
+                if (*src == ' ' || *src == '\t') {
+                    if (!in_space) {
+                        *dst++ = '.';
+                        *dst++ = '*';
+                        in_space = true;
+                    }
+                } else {
+                    /* Escape regex metacharacters from user input */
+                    if (strchr("\\^$.|?*+()[]{}", *src)) {
+                        *dst++ = '\\';
+                    }
+                    *dst++ = *src;
+                    in_space = false;
+                }
+                src++;
+            }
+            *dst = '\0';
+            free(pattern);
+            pattern = regex_pat;
+            use_regex = true;
+        }
+    }
+
     /* ── Phase 1: Grep scan ──────────────────────────────────── */
     char tmpfile[CBM_SZ_256];
     if (!write_pattern_file(tmpfile, sizeof(tmpfile), pattern)) {
diff --git a/tests/test_mcp.c b/tests/test_mcp.c
index 72729f11..32db0b8c 100644
--- a/tests/test_mcp.c
+++ b/tests/test_mcp.c
@@ -589,6 +589,33 @@ TEST(tool_search_code_no_project) {
     PASS();
 }
 
+TEST(search_code_multi_word) {
+    char tmp[512];
+    cbm_mcp_server_t *srv = setup_snippet_server(tmp, sizeof(tmp));
+    ASSERT_NOT_NULL(srv);
+
+    /* Multi-word query "HandleRequest error" — should find the line
+     * "func HandleRequest() error {" via regex conversion. */
+    char req[512];
+    snprintf(req, sizeof(req),
+             "{\"jsonrpc\":\"2.0\",\"id\":90,\"method\":\"tools/call\","
+             "\"params\":{\"name\":\"search_code\","
+             "\"arguments\":{\"pattern\":\"HandleRequest error\","
+             "\"project\":\"test-project\"}}}");
+
+    char *resp = cbm_mcp_server_handle(srv, req);
+    ASSERT_NOT_NULL(resp);
+    /* Should find at least one result (not zero) */
+    ASSERT_TRUE(strstr(resp, "HandleRequest") != NULL);
+    /* Should NOT contain an error about "not found" */
+    ASSERT_TRUE(strstr(resp, "\"isError\":true") == NULL);
+    free(resp);
+
+    cleanup_snippet_dir(tmp);
+    cbm_mcp_server_free(srv);
+    PASS();
+}
+
 TEST(tool_detect_changes_no_project) {
     cbm_mcp_server_t *srv = cbm_mcp_server_new(NULL);
 
@@ -1711,6 +1738,7 @@ SUITE(mcp) {
     RUN_TEST(tool_get_code_snippet_not_found);
     RUN_TEST(tool_search_code_missing_pattern);
     RUN_TEST(tool_search_code_no_project);
+    RUN_TEST(search_code_multi_word);
     RUN_TEST(tool_detect_changes_no_project);
     RUN_TEST(tool_manage_adr_no_project);
     RUN_TEST(tool_manage_adr_get_with_existing_adr);