diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index bf48c62..aa9ff63 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -139,17 +139,17 @@ burn: bootstrap ## delete a leaf with no children. providence: KEY=<cache_key>;
 # Multi-source RAG query against the shard cluster.
 # Usage: make query Q="What is anarcho-capitalism?"
 QUERY_TOP_K ?= 8
-query: bootstrap ## ask the corpus a question; sources are picked across shards
+query: bootstrap ## ask the corpus a question [JSON=1 for raw record]; sources picked across shards
 	@if [ -z "$$Q" ] && [ -z "$(Q)" ]; then \
-	  echo "usage: make query Q=\"your question\""; exit 2; \
+	  echo "usage: make query Q=\"your question\" [JSON=1]"; exit 2; \
 	fi
-	$(ABORIST) --shards-dir $(SHARDS_DIR) query --top-k $(QUERY_TOP_K) "$(Q)"
+	$(ABORIST) --shards-dir $(SHARDS_DIR) query --top-k $(QUERY_TOP_K) $(if $(JSON),--json,) "$(Q)"
 
-query-dry: bootstrap ## like 'make query' but skip the LLM call (dry-run)
+query-dry: bootstrap ## like 'make query' but skip the LLM call (dry-run) [JSON=1 for raw]
 	@if [ -z "$$Q" ] && [ -z "$(Q)" ]; then \
-	  echo "usage: make query-dry Q=\"your question\""; exit 2; \
+	  echo "usage: make query-dry Q=\"your question\" [JSON=1]"; exit 2; \
 	fi
-	$(ABORIST) --shards-dir $(SHARDS_DIR) query --top-k $(QUERY_TOP_K) --dry-run "$(Q)"
+	$(ABORIST) --shards-dir $(SHARDS_DIR) query --top-k $(QUERY_TOP_K) --dry-run $(if $(JSON),--json,) "$(Q)"
 
 verify-shards: bootstrap ## cross-shard Merkle round-trip on a random sample
 	$(ABORIST) --shards-dir $(SHARDS_DIR) verify -n $(VERIFY_N)