diff --git a/internal/storage/factory.go b/internal/storage/factory.go
index 733e142..633fc65 100644
--- a/internal/storage/factory.go
+++ b/internal/storage/factory.go
@@ -69,6 +69,25 @@ func NewDatabase(driver, dsn string) (*gorm.DB, error) {
 
 	db, err := gorm.Open(dialector, &gorm.Config{
 		Logger: logger.Default.LogMode(logger.Error),
+		// RAN-49: never emit FK constraints during AutoMigrate.
+		//
+		// (1) Async ingestion: spans/logs can arrive before their parent trace,
+		// so a real FK on (spans|logs).trace_id → traces.trace_id would reject
+		// valid out-of-order writes — which is why the MySQL path explicitly
+		// drops fk_traces_spans / fk_traces_logs after AutoMigrate.
+		//
+		// (2) RAN-21 made trace identity tenant-scoped: traces no longer carries
+		// a single-column unique on trace_id (only the composite
+		// (tenant_id, trace_id)). On Postgres, CREATE TABLE spans (... FK
+		// trace_id REFERENCES traces(trace_id)) then fails at DDL time with
+		// SQLSTATE 42830 ("there is no unique constraint matching given keys
+		// for referenced table"), aborting boot on a fresh DB. SQLite hides
+		// this because it does not validate FK targets at CREATE TABLE time.
+		//
+		// The model-level `constraint:false` GORM tag is not honored by
+		// gorm v2's relationship parser, so the only reliable way to suppress
+		// FK creation across all drivers is this config flag.
+		DisableForeignKeyConstraintWhenMigrating: true,
 	})
 	if err != nil {
 		// Never surface the DSN in error wraps — pgx occasionally embeds connection
@@ -168,7 +187,11 @@ func getEnvPoolDuration(key string, fallback time.Duration) time.Duration {
 func AutoMigrateModels(db *gorm.DB, driver string) error {
 	driver = strings.ToLower(driver)
 
-	// Disable FK checks during migration for MySQL
+	// Disable FK checks during migration for MySQL.
+	// New databases will not get FKs created (DisableForeignKeyConstraintWhenMigrating
+	// in NewDatabase), but legacy MySQL DBs may still carry fk_traces_spans /
+	// fk_traces_logs from before RAN-49 — toggling FK_CHECKS=0 keeps the
+	// post-migrate DROP statements below safe regardless of legacy state.
 	if driver == "mysql" {
 		db.Exec("SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS = 0")
 		log.Println("🔓 Disabled foreign key checks for migration")
@@ -187,12 +210,15 @@ func AutoMigrateModels(db *gorm.DB, driver string) error {
 		log.Printf("⚠️  legacy trace_id unique index drop failed: %v", err)
 	}
 
-	// Drop foreign keys that AutoMigrate may have created (MySQL)
+	// Legacy MySQL cleanup: drop FKs that pre-RAN-49 migrations created. Fresh
+	// MySQL DBs after RAN-49 won't have these (FK creation is now disabled at
+	// the gorm.Config layer), but pre-existing deployments still need this
+	// drop to keep async ingestion non-blocking.
 	if driver == "mysql" {
 		db.Exec("ALTER TABLE spans DROP FOREIGN KEY fk_traces_spans")
 		db.Exec("ALTER TABLE logs DROP FOREIGN KEY fk_traces_logs")
 		db.Exec("SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS = 1")
-		log.Println("🔓 Dropped FK constraints for async ingestion compatibility")
+		log.Println("🔓 Dropped legacy FK constraints (no-op on fresh DBs)")
 	}
 
 	// Postgres: enable pg_trgm and create a GIN index on logs.body for fuzzy ILIKE search.
diff --git a/internal/storage/pg_integration_test.go b/internal/storage/pg_integration_test.go
index a1a2bbd..46e04b3 100644
--- a/internal/storage/pg_integration_test.go
+++ b/internal/storage/pg_integration_test.go
@@ -348,6 +348,79 @@ func TestPG_PurgeTracesBatched_OrphanSpanSweep_NOT_IN(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+// TestPG_AutoMigrate_FromEmpty_NoSpansTracesFK is the RAN-49 regression
+// guard. It boots a fresh Postgres 16 container, runs AutoMigrateModels
+// directly against the empty schema, and asserts:
+//
+//  1. The migrator completes (no SQLSTATE 42830 from the legacy
+//     spans.trace_id → traces.trace_id FK that pre-RAN-49 GORM emitted).
+//  2. No FK constraint exists on spans or logs that references traces —
+//     async ingestion can land child rows before their parent trace, and
+//     RAN-21 made trace identity composite, so a single-column FK on
+//     trace_id would either reject valid writes or fail at DDL time.
+//
+// SQLite cannot exercise this path: it does not validate FK targets at
+// CREATE TABLE time, which is exactly why RAN-21 silently regressed past
+// CI. Keep this test on the integration build tag so the regression
+// class can not sneak back in.
+func TestPG_AutoMigrate_FromEmpty_NoSpansTracesFK(t *testing.T) {
+	ctx := context.Background()
+
+	pgContainer, err := postgres.Run(ctx, "postgres:16-alpine",
+		postgres.WithDatabase("otel_test"),
+		postgres.WithUsername("otel"),
+		postgres.WithPassword("otel"),
+		postgres.BasicWaitStrategies(),
+	)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Skipf("docker unavailable, skipping pg integration tests: %v", err)
+	}
+	defer func() { _ = pgContainer.Terminate(ctx) }()
+
+	dsn, err := pgContainer.ConnectionString(ctx, "sslmode=disable")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("ConnectionString: %v", err)
+	}
+
+	db, err := NewDatabase("postgres", dsn)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("NewDatabase(postgres): %v", err)
+	}
+	defer func() {
+		if sqlDB, dbErr := db.DB(); dbErr == nil {
+			_ = sqlDB.Close()
+		}
+	}()
+
+	if err := AutoMigrateModels(db, "postgres"); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("AutoMigrateModels(postgres) on empty DB failed (RAN-49 regression): %v", err)
+	}
+
+	// Assert no FK from spans/logs references traces.
+	rows, err := db.Raw(`
+		SELECT tc.table_name, tc.constraint_name, ccu.table_name AS foreign_table
+		FROM information_schema.table_constraints tc
+		JOIN information_schema.constraint_column_usage ccu
+		  ON tc.constraint_name = ccu.constraint_name
+		 AND tc.table_schema   = ccu.table_schema
+		WHERE tc.constraint_type = 'FOREIGN KEY'
+		  AND tc.table_schema    = 'public'
+		  AND tc.table_name      IN ('spans','logs')
+		  AND ccu.table_name     = 'traces'`).Rows()
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("information_schema FK lookup: %v", err)
+	}
+	defer rows.Close()
+
+	for rows.Next() {
+		var table, name, foreignTable string
+		if scanErr := rows.Scan(&table, &name, &foreignTable); scanErr != nil {
+			t.Fatalf("FK row scan: %v", scanErr)
+		}
+		t.Errorf("unexpected FK %s on %s referencing %s — async ingestion expects no FK back to traces (RAN-49)", name, table, foreignTable)
+	}
+}
+
 // TestPG_AutoMigrate_BlobTypesBecomeBytea inspects information_schema to
 // assert that CompressedText fields are materialized as bytea columns on
 // Postgres — proves the GormDBDataType dialect mapping survives migration.