diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 0dc53dd..192fe3e 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -218,6 +218,20 @@ policy starts with a read-only command classifier:
 
 Policy is stored in `infra/agent-sandbox/policy.tsv`.
 
+## AI Workload Scheduling
+
+For AI-ish workloads, Jeannie can simulate placement across Debian, Pimox
+workers, and the RPi based on CPU, memory, architecture, tailnet access, and
+control-plane policy:
+
+```bash
+./jeannie ai-scheduler recommend small-rag
+./jeannie ai-scheduler simulate
+```
+
+The simulator lives under `infra/ai-scheduler` and is a stepping stone toward a
+real Kubernetes controller.
+
 ## Deploying
 
 From the Debian server:
diff --git a/README.md.tmpl b/README.md.tmpl
index e132615..2aa6f4c 100644
--- a/README.md.tmpl
+++ b/README.md.tmpl
@@ -218,6 +218,20 @@ policy starts with a read-only command classifier:
 
 Policy is stored in `infra/agent-sandbox/policy.tsv`.
 
+## AI Workload Scheduling
+
+For AI-ish workloads, Jeannie can simulate placement across Debian, Pimox
+workers, and the RPi based on CPU, memory, architecture, tailnet access, and
+control-plane policy:
+
+```bash
+./{{ main_script }} ai-scheduler recommend small-rag
+./{{ main_script }} ai-scheduler simulate
+```
+
+The simulator lives under `infra/ai-scheduler` and is a stepping stone toward a
+real Kubernetes controller.
+
 ## Deploying
 
 From the Debian server:
diff --git a/docs/jeannie.1.md b/docs/jeannie.1.md
index e730db1..8890ad0 100644
--- a/docs/jeannie.1.md
+++ b/docs/jeannie.1.md
@@ -326,6 +326,10 @@ and commands. Set `LAB_AI_ASK_LLM=true` to ask Ollama after retrieval.
 `infra/ai-evals`. The harness is read-only and uses fixtures plus allowlisted
 commands so it can run before CI or homelab changes.
 
+`ai-scheduler {simulate|recommend NAME}`
+: Simulate AI workload placement against repo-managed node and workload policy,
+including CPU, memory, architecture, tailnet access, and control-plane penalty.
+
 ### Defensive Security
 
 `security-scan`
diff --git a/infra/ai-scheduler/README.md b/infra/ai-scheduler/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bcc5c0e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/infra/ai-scheduler/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+# Kubernetes AI Workload Scheduler
+
+This is a lightweight scheduler simulator for AI-ish workloads in the homelab.
+It scores candidate nodes by architecture, CPU, memory, tailnet access, and
+control-plane taints.
+
+Run:
+
+```bash
+./jeannie ai-scheduler simulate
+./jeannie ai-scheduler recommend small-rag
+```
+
+The first version is read-only and uses `infra/ai-scheduler/workloads.tsv` plus
+`infra/ai-scheduler/nodes.tsv`. It is meant to inform placement policy before
+building a real Kubernetes controller.
+
diff --git a/infra/ai-scheduler/nodes.tsv b/infra/ai-scheduler/nodes.tsv
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5b3519a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/infra/ai-scheduler/nodes.tsv
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+node	arch	cpu_m	memory_mib	tailnet	control_plane	power_class
+debian	amd64	6000	16000	true	true	high
+pimox-worker-01	arm64	2000	4096	true	false	low
+pimox-worker-02	arm64	2000	4096	true	false	low
+pimox-worker-03	arm64	2000	4096	true	false	low
+rpi4	arm64	1500	2048	false	false	low
+
diff --git a/infra/ai-scheduler/workloads.tsv b/infra/ai-scheduler/workloads.tsv
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..91e07ec
--- /dev/null
+++ b/infra/ai-scheduler/workloads.tsv
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+workload	cpu_m	memory_mib	requires_tailnet	prefer_arch	allow_control_plane
+small-rag	750	1536	true	amd64	false
+model-observer	300	512	false	any	false
+eval-runner	1000	2048	false	amd64	true
+website-ai-helper	500	768	true	any	false
+
diff --git a/jeannie b/jeannie
index 45f54ff..ab6c6f2 100755
--- a/jeannie
+++ b/jeannie
@@ -6338,6 +6338,10 @@ agent_sandbox() {
     "${REPO_ROOT}/scripts/agent-sandbox" "${@:2}"
 }
 
+ai_scheduler() {
+    "${REPO_ROOT}/scripts/ai-scheduler" "${@:2}"
+}
+
 validate_homelab() {
     "${REPO_ROOT}/scripts/validate-homelab"
 }
@@ -6604,6 +6608,7 @@ AI And Indexing
   ai-check                                   Query/check the local AI index.
   ask QUESTION...                            Find relevant docs/runbooks/commands.
   ai-evals {list|run|show}                   Run deterministic Jeannie/RAG eval cases.
+  ai-scheduler {simulate|recommend NAME}     Simulate AI workload placement policy.
 
 Destructive
   nuke                                       Guarded cluster state destruction path.
@@ -6829,6 +6834,9 @@ case "${1:-}" in
     ai-evals)
         ai_evals "$@"
         ;;
+    ai-scheduler)
+        ai_scheduler "$@"
+        ;;
     impact)
         impact "$@"
         ;;
diff --git a/scripts/ai-scheduler b/scripts/ai-scheduler
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..661f2a5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/ai-scheduler
@@ -0,0 +1,124 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+"""Simulate placement for AI-ish homelab workloads."""
+
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import argparse
+import csv
+from pathlib import Path
+
+
+REPO_ROOT = Path(__file__).resolve().parents[1]
+SCHED_DIR = REPO_ROOT / "infra" / "ai-scheduler"
+NODES_FILE = SCHED_DIR / "nodes.tsv"
+WORKLOADS_FILE = SCHED_DIR / "workloads.tsv"
+
+
+def read_tsv(path: Path) -> list[dict[str, str]]:
+    with path.open(encoding="utf-8", newline="") as handle:
+        return list(csv.DictReader(handle, delimiter="\t"))
+
+
+def as_bool(value: str) -> bool:
+    return value.strip().lower() in {"true", "yes", "1"}
+
+
+def score_node(workload: dict[str, str], node: dict[str, str]) -> tuple[int, list[str], list[str]]:
+    score = 100
+    reasons: list[str] = []
+    blockers: list[str] = []
+    cpu_needed = int(workload["cpu_m"])
+    mem_needed = int(workload["memory_mib"])
+    cpu_have = int(node["cpu_m"])
+    mem_have = int(node["memory_mib"])
+
+    if cpu_have < cpu_needed:
+        blockers.append(f"cpu {cpu_have}m < {cpu_needed}m")
+    else:
+        reasons.append("cpu fits")
+        score += min((cpu_have - cpu_needed) // 250, 10)
+    if mem_have < mem_needed:
+        blockers.append(f"memory {mem_have}Mi < {mem_needed}Mi")
+    else:
+        reasons.append("memory fits")
+        score += min((mem_have - mem_needed) // 512, 10)
+    if as_bool(workload["requires_tailnet"]) and not as_bool(node["tailnet"]):
+        blockers.append("tailnet required")
+    elif as_bool(node["tailnet"]):
+        reasons.append("tailnet available")
+        score += 8
+    if workload["prefer_arch"] != "any" and workload["prefer_arch"] != node["arch"]:
+        score -= 15
+        reasons.append(f"non-preferred arch {node['arch']}")
+    else:
+        reasons.append(f"arch {node['arch']} ok")
+    if as_bool(node["control_plane"]) and not as_bool(workload["allow_control_plane"]):
+        score -= 30
+        reasons.append("control-plane penalty")
+    if node["power_class"] == "low":
+        score += 5
+        reasons.append("low-power node")
+    return score, reasons, blockers
+
+
+def recommend(workload_name: str) -> int:
+    workloads = {row["workload"]: row for row in read_tsv(WORKLOADS_FILE)}
+    nodes = read_tsv(NODES_FILE)
+    if workload_name not in workloads:
+        print(f"Unknown workload: {workload_name}")
+        print("Known workloads:")
+        for name in workloads:
+            print(f"  {name}")
+        return 2
+    workload = workloads[workload_name]
+    rows = []
+    for node in nodes:
+        score, reasons, blockers = score_node(workload, node)
+        rows.append((score, node["node"], reasons, blockers))
+    rows.sort(reverse=True)
+
+    print("AI Workload Scheduler")
+    print("=====================")
+    print(f"workload: {workload_name}")
+    print()
+    for score, node_name, reasons, blockers in rows:
+        status = "blocked" if blockers else "candidate"
+        print(f"{status:9} {node_name:18} score={score}")
+        if blockers:
+            print(f"          blockers: {', '.join(blockers)}")
+        print(f"          reasons: {', '.join(reasons)}")
+    best = next((row for row in rows if not row[3]), None)
+    if best:
+        print()
+        print(f"Recommendation: {best[1]}")
+        return 0
+    print()
+    print("Recommendation: add capacity or relax workload requirements")
+    return 1
+
+
+def simulate() -> int:
+    failures = 0
+    for workload in read_tsv(WORKLOADS_FILE):
+        print()
+        rc = recommend(workload["workload"])
+        failures += 1 if rc else 0
+    return 1 if failures else 0
+
+
+def main() -> int:
+    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description=__doc__)
+    subparsers = parser.add_subparsers(dest="command", required=True)
+    subparsers.add_parser("simulate")
+    rec = subparsers.add_parser("recommend")
+    rec.add_argument("workload")
+    args = parser.parse_args()
+    if args.command == "simulate":
+        return simulate()
+    if args.command == "recommend":
+        return recommend(args.workload)
+    return 2
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    raise SystemExit(main())
diff --git a/scripts/explain b/scripts/explain
index ea50ca8..26bf1e3 100755
--- a/scripts/explain
+++ b/scripts/explain
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ EOF
 
 is_read_only_command() {
     case "$1" in
-        status|capacity|capacity-advisor|capacity-limits|recover-plan|incident|safety-case|agent-sandbox|scorecard|gitops-status|cert-check|backup-status|synthetic-checks|resource-budget|route-inventory|golden-ledger|workers|change-journal|map|validate|access-audit|doctor-versions|doctor-edge|doctor-gitea|doctor-rpi|doctor-cluster|preflight|doctor-preapply|inventory-check|secrets-check|tailnet-policy-check|ai-check|ask|ai-evals|impact|review-last-change|security-scan|security-host|security-trivy|security-secrets|security-nuclei|security-web|security-logs|security-attack-path|prompt-injection-lab|control-plane)
+        status|capacity|capacity-advisor|capacity-limits|recover-plan|incident|safety-case|agent-sandbox|scorecard|gitops-status|cert-check|backup-status|synthetic-checks|resource-budget|route-inventory|golden-ledger|workers|change-journal|map|validate|access-audit|doctor-versions|doctor-edge|doctor-gitea|doctor-rpi|doctor-cluster|preflight|doctor-preapply|inventory-check|secrets-check|tailnet-policy-check|ai-check|ask|ai-evals|ai-scheduler|impact|review-last-change|security-scan|security-host|security-trivy|security-secrets|security-nuclei|security-web|security-logs|security-attack-path|prompt-injection-lab|control-plane)
             return 0
             ;;
         *)