diff --git a/server/internal/database/rag_service_config.go b/server/internal/database/rag_service_config.go
index 5c86eee9..a51feca7 100644
--- a/server/internal/database/rag_service_config.go
+++ b/server/internal/database/rag_service_config.go
@@ -4,11 +4,23 @@ import (
 	"bytes"
 	"encoding/json"
 	"fmt"
+	"regexp"
 	"slices"
 	"sort"
 	"strings"
 )
 
+// ragPipelineNamePatternText is the allowlist pattern for RAG pipeline names.
+// It is kept as a const so that the compiled regexp and the error message both
+// reference the same literal and cannot drift apart.
+const ragPipelineNamePatternText = `^[a-z0-9_][a-z0-9_-]*$`
+
+// ragPipelineNamePattern restricts pipeline names to lowercase alphanumeric
+// characters, hyphens, and underscores. The first character must not be a
+// hyphen so that names are safe as filename components and cannot be
+// misinterpreted as CLI flags if ever passed to a command.
+var ragPipelineNamePattern = regexp.MustCompile(ragPipelineNamePatternText)
+
 // RAGPipelineLLMConfig represents LLM configuration for an embedding or RAG step.
 type RAGPipelineLLMConfig struct {
 	Provider string  `json:"provider"`
@@ -126,9 +138,11 @@ func validateRAGPipeline(p RAGPipeline, i int, seenNames map[string]bool) []erro
 	var errs []error
 	prefix := fmt.Sprintf("pipelines[%d]", i)
 
-	// name (required, unique)
+	// name (required, allowlist, unique)
 	if p.Name == "" {
 		errs = append(errs, fmt.Errorf("%s.name is required", prefix))
+	} else if !ragPipelineNamePattern.MatchString(p.Name) {
+		errs = append(errs, fmt.Errorf("%s.name %q is invalid: must match %s", prefix, p.Name, ragPipelineNamePatternText))
 	} else if seenNames[p.Name] {
 		errs = append(errs, fmt.Errorf("pipelines contains duplicate name %q", p.Name))
 	} else {
diff --git a/server/internal/database/rag_service_config_test.go b/server/internal/database/rag_service_config_test.go
index 953f41c7..b9f3f7ca 100644
--- a/server/internal/database/rag_service_config_test.go
+++ b/server/internal/database/rag_service_config_test.go
@@ -384,6 +384,50 @@ func TestParseRAGServiceConfig_MissingRAGLLM(t *testing.T) {
 	assert.Contains(t, errs[0].Error(), "rag_llm.provider")
 }
 
+func TestParseRAGServiceConfig_PipelineNameAllowlist(t *testing.T) {
+	validNames := []string{
+		"default",
+		"my-pipeline",
+		"my_pipeline",
+		"pipeline-1",
+		"a",
+		"abc123",
+		"a-b_c-1",
+	}
+	for _, name := range validNames {
+		t.Run("valid/"+name, func(t *testing.T) {
+			config := minimalRAGConfig()
+			config["pipelines"].([]any)[0].(map[string]any)["name"] = name
+			_, errs := database.ParseRAGServiceConfig(config, false)
+			assert.Empty(t, errs, "name %q should be valid", name)
+		})
+	}
+
+	invalidNames := []string{
+		"My Pipeline",          // uppercase + space
+		"pipeline name",        // space
+		"pipeline/name",        // slash
+		"../etc/passwd",        // path traversal
+		"UPPER",                // uppercase
+		"pipe🔥line",           // unicode emoji
+		"pipeline.name",        // dot
+		"-pipeline",            // leading hyphen (could be misread as a CLI flag)
+		"",                     // empty (covered separately, but included for completeness)
+	}
+	for _, name := range invalidNames {
+		if name == "" {
+			continue // empty name is a separate "required" error
+		}
+		t.Run("invalid/"+name, func(t *testing.T) {
+			config := minimalRAGConfig()
+			config["pipelines"].([]any)[0].(map[string]any)["name"] = name
+			_, errs := database.ParseRAGServiceConfig(config, false)
+			require.NotEmpty(t, errs, "name %q should be invalid", name)
+			assert.Contains(t, errs[0].Error(), "must match ^[a-z0-9_][a-z0-9_-]*$")
+		})
+	}
+}
+
 func TestParseRAGServiceConfig_MultiplePipelines(t *testing.T) {
 	config := map[string]any{
 		"pipelines": []any{