diff --git a/backend/packages/harness/deerflow/agents/memory/AGENTS.md b/backend/packages/harness/deerflow/agents/memory/AGENTS.md
index c583a30e78..a1bd18fdfc 100644
--- a/backend/packages/harness/deerflow/agents/memory/AGENTS.md
+++ b/backend/packages/harness/deerflow/agents/memory/AGENTS.md
@@ -19,6 +19,9 @@ to the constructed backend and require backend recreation to change.
 
 This directory owns memory capture, storage, retrieval, prompt injection, and model-driven memory tools.
 
+Honcho search rejects non-object, non-null `metadata` at the HTTP boundary:
+apply the read policy to the whole result, with value-free diagnostics.
+
 #### Main components
 
 - `manager.py` defines the backend-neutral `MemoryManager` contract.
diff --git a/backend/packages/harness/deerflow/agents/memory/backends/honcho/README.md b/backend/packages/harness/deerflow/agents/memory/backends/honcho/README.md
index 031bc7437a..20403f46a0 100644
--- a/backend/packages/harness/deerflow/agents/memory/backends/honcho/README.md
+++ b/backend/packages/harness/deerflow/agents/memory/backends/honcho/README.md
@@ -71,6 +71,13 @@ cannot see each other's memory by construction.
   workspace-scoped search, while the passive per-turn write middleware is
   retained because Honcho's deriver learns from `add()` writes.
 
+Search result `metadata` must be an object, null, or absent. The HTTP client
+rejects other containers before returning results, so `failure_policy.read`
+also covers metadata-shape failures: fail-open returns no search results and
+fail-closed raises `MemoryReadError`. A malformed later result does not expose
+a partial result set. Diagnostics name the result index and field, without
+echoing metadata or memory content.
+
 ## Incremental conversation capture
 
 Checkpoint history is cumulative. For messages with stable source IDs, the
diff --git a/backend/packages/harness/deerflow/agents/memory/backends/honcho/client.py b/backend/packages/harness/deerflow/agents/memory/backends/honcho/client.py
index 8524a08a62..e2dcb721ae 100644
--- a/backend/packages/harness/deerflow/agents/memory/backends/honcho/client.py
+++ b/backend/packages/harness/deerflow/agents/memory/backends/honcho/client.py
@@ -106,4 +106,9 @@ class HonchoClient:
         if filters:
             payload["filters"] = filters
         data = self._post(f"/v3/workspaces/{workspace}/search", payload)
-        return list(data) if isinstance(data, list) else []
+        results = list(data) if isinstance(data, list) else []
+        for index, item in enumerate(results):
+            metadata = item.get("metadata") if isinstance(item, dict) else None
+            if metadata is not None and not isinstance(metadata, dict):
+                raise HonchoRequestError(f"Honcho search results[{index}].metadata must be an object or null")
+        return results
diff --git a/backend/tests/test_honcho_search_metadata_policy.py b/backend/tests/test_honcho_search_metadata_policy.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..2cff6e4201
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/tests/test_honcho_search_metadata_policy.py
@@ -0,0 +1,62 @@
+"""Malformed remote search metadata must honor the configured read policy."""
+
+import json
+import logging
+
+import httpx
+import pytest
+
+from deerflow.agents.memory.backends.honcho.client import HonchoClient
+from deerflow.agents.memory.backends.honcho.honcho_manager import HonchoMemoryManager
+from deerflow.agents.memory.manager import MemoryReadError
+
+
+@pytest.mark.asyncio
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("async_read", [False, True])
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("policy", ["fail_open", "fail_closed"])
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("metadata", ["private-invalid-metadata", ["private-invalid-metadata"], 7, True])
+async def test_search_metadata_failure_honors_read_policy(metadata, policy, async_read, caplog):
+    manager = HonchoMemoryManager.from_config({"base_url": "http://honcho.test", "failure_policy": {"read": policy}})
+    manager._client.close()
+    requests = []
+
+    def respond(request):
+        requests.append(request)
+        assert json.loads(request.content) == {"query": "synthetic query", "limit": 5}
+        return httpx.Response(200, json=[{"content": "private-valid-content", "metadata": {"category": "preference"}}, {"content": "private-invalid-content", "metadata": metadata}])
+
+    manager._client = HonchoClient(manager._config, transport=httpx.MockTransport(respond))
+
+    async def search():
+        if async_read:
+            return await manager.asearch("synthetic query", user_id="synthetic-user")
+        return manager.search("synthetic query", user_id="synthetic-user")
+
+    try:
+        with caplog.at_level(logging.WARNING):
+            if policy == "fail_closed":
+                with pytest.raises(MemoryReadError) as error:
+                    await search()
+                diagnostics = str(error.value)
+            else:
+                assert await search() == []
+                diagnostics = caplog.text
+        assert "metadata" in diagnostics
+        for secret in ("private-invalid-metadata", "private-valid-content", "private-invalid-content"):
+            assert secret not in diagnostics
+        assert len(requests) == 1
+    finally:
+        manager.close()
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("metadata", [None, {}, {"category": "preference"}])
+def test_search_preserves_valid_metadata(metadata):
+    manager = HonchoMemoryManager.from_config({"base_url": "http://honcho.test"})
+    manager._client.close()
+    manager._client = HonchoClient(manager._config, transport=httpx.MockTransport(lambda _: httpx.Response(200, json=[{"content": "Synthetic content", "metadata": metadata}])))
+    try:
+        result = manager.search("synthetic query", user_id="synthetic-user")
+        assert result[0]["content"] == "Synthetic content"
+        assert result[0]["category"] == ("preference" if metadata else "memory")
+    finally:
+        manager.close()