diff --git a/crates/agentflare-store/src/documents.rs b/crates/agentflare-store/src/documents.rs
index 86baa84a..57a8a0ee 100644
--- a/crates/agentflare-store/src/documents.rs
+++ b/crates/agentflare-store/src/documents.rs
@@ -550,8 +550,10 @@ impl Store {
             |row| {
                 let blob: Vec<u8> = row.get(0)?;
                 let vec: Vec<f32> = blob
-                    .chunks_exact(4)
-                    .map(|c| f32::from_le_bytes([c[0], c[1], c[2], c[3]]))
+                    .as_chunks::<4>()
+                    .0
+                    .iter()
+                    .map(|c| f32::from_le_bytes(*c))
                     .collect();
                 Ok(vec)
             },
@@ -588,8 +590,10 @@ impl Store {
                     return None;
                 }
                 let doc_vec: Vec<f32> = blob
-                    .chunks_exact(4)
-                    .map(|c| f32::from_le_bytes([c[0], c[1], c[2], c[3]]))
+                    .as_chunks::<4>()
+                    .0
+                    .iter()
+                    .map(|c| f32::from_le_bytes(*c))
                     .collect();
                 let sim = crate::embed::cosine_similarity(query_vec, &doc_vec)? as f64;
                 Some((
diff --git a/crates/agentflare-store/src/embed.rs b/crates/agentflare-store/src/embed.rs
index d3944605..960912ed 100644
--- a/crates/agentflare-store/src/embed.rs
+++ b/crates/agentflare-store/src/embed.rs
@@ -25,8 +25,10 @@ pub fn bytes_to_vec(b: &[u8]) -> Option<Vec<f32>> {
         return None;
     }
     Some(
-        b.chunks_exact(4)
-            .map(|c| f32::from_le_bytes([c[0], c[1], c[2], c[3]]))
+        b.as_chunks::<4>()
+            .0
+            .iter()
+            .map(|c| f32::from_le_bytes(*c))
             .collect(),
     )
 }
diff --git a/crates/flare-proxy/src/forward.rs b/crates/flare-proxy/src/forward.rs
index 8b5e57b7..0c620f28 100644
--- a/crates/flare-proxy/src/forward.rs
+++ b/crates/flare-proxy/src/forward.rs
@@ -125,7 +125,7 @@ async fn proxy_anthropic(
 
     let resp = match check_status(resp).await {
         Ok(resp) => resp,
-        Err(err) => return err,
+        Err(err) => return *err,
     };
 
     Response::builder()
@@ -170,7 +170,7 @@ async fn proxy_gemini(
             false,
             false,
         ),
-        Err(err) => err,
+        Err(err) => *err,
     }
 }
 
@@ -212,7 +212,7 @@ async fn proxy_openai_compat(
             needs_heuristic,
             needs_think,
         ),
-        Err(err) => err,
+        Err(err) => *err,
     }
 }
 
@@ -233,19 +233,25 @@ fn apply_extra_headers(
 /// Verify the upstream response succeeded, converting a non-2xx into an
 /// Anthropic-shaped error `Response`. On success, hands back the still-open
 /// `reqwest::Response` so the caller can stream its body.
-async fn check_status(resp: reqwest::Response) -> Result<reqwest::Response, Response> {
+///
+/// `Response` (`axum::http::Response<axum::body::Body>`) is >=128 bytes, so
+/// it's boxed in the `Err` variant rather than inflating every `Result`
+/// return by that much even on the success path (`clippy::result_large_err`).
+async fn check_status(resp: reqwest::Response) -> Result<reqwest::Response, Box<Response>> {
     if resp.status().is_success() {
         return Ok(resp);
     }
     let status = resp.status();
     let body = resp.text().await.unwrap_or_default();
     let err_val: Value = serde_json::from_str(&body).unwrap_or(json!({"error": {"message": body}}));
-    Err((
-        StatusCode::from_u16(status.as_u16()).unwrap_or(StatusCode::BAD_GATEWAY),
-        [(axum::http::header::CONTENT_TYPE, "application/json")],
-        serde_json::to_string(&shape_xlat::error_to_anthropic(&err_val)).unwrap_or_default(),
-    )
-        .into_response())
+    Err(Box::new(
+        (
+            StatusCode::from_u16(status.as_u16()).unwrap_or(StatusCode::BAD_GATEWAY),
+            [(axum::http::header::CONTENT_TYPE, "application/json")],
+            serde_json::to_string(&shape_xlat::error_to_anthropic(&err_val)).unwrap_or_default(),
+        )
+            .into_response(),
+    ))
 }
 
 /// Shared SSE loop for providers whose raw stream needs translating into