diff --git a/__tests__/status-concurrent-rebuild.test.ts b/__tests__/status-concurrent-rebuild.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..02710dd805
--- /dev/null
+++ b/__tests__/status-concurrent-rebuild.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,101 @@
+import { describe, it, expect, beforeEach, afterEach } from 'vitest';
+import { spawnSync } from 'child_process';
+import * as fs from 'fs';
+import * as path from 'path';
+import * as os from 'os';
+import { DatabaseConnection } from '../src/db';
+import { QueryBuilder } from '../src/db/queries';
+
+const BIN = path.resolve(__dirname, '../dist/bin/codegraph.js');
+
+describe('status during live rebuild (#2913)', () => {
+  let root: string;
+  let writer: DatabaseConnection | null = null;
+
+  beforeEach(() => {
+    root = fs.mkdtempSync(path.join(os.tmpdir(), 'codegraph-status-repro-'));
+  });
+
+  afterEach(() => {
+    if (writer) {
+      try {
+        writer.close();
+      } catch {}
+      writer = null;
+    }
+    fs.rmSync(root, { recursive: true, force: true });
+  });
+
+  it('codegraph status does not recreate dropped secondary indexes or fail active edge writes', () => {
+    const dataDir = path.join(root, '.codegraph');
+    fs.mkdirSync(dataDir);
+    writer = DatabaseConnection.initialize(path.join(dataDir, 'codegraph.db'));
+    const db = writer.getDb();
+
+    for (const id of ['a', 'b']) {
+      db.prepare(
+        'INSERT INTO nodes ' +
+          '(id,kind,name,qualified_name,file_path,language,' +
+          'start_line,end_line,start_column,end_column,updated_at) ' +
+          'VALUES (?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?,?)',
+      ).run(
+        id,
+        'function',
+        id,
+        id,
+        'fixture.ts',
+        'typescript',
+        1,
+        1,
+        0,
+        1,
+        Date.now(),
+      );
+    }
+
+    const lock = JSON.stringify({
+      pid: process.pid,
+      mode: 'rebuild',
+      startedAt: Date.now(),
+      ready: false,
+    });
+    fs.writeFileSync(path.join(dataDir, 'rebuild.pid'), lock);
+    fs.writeFileSync(path.join(dataDir, 'writer.pid'), lock);
+
+    writer.beginBulkEdgeLoad();
+    const queries = new QueryBuilder(db);
+    const getIds = queries.getExistingNodeIds.bind(queries);
+
+    let observerRan = false;
+    let observerStatus: number | null = null;
+    let observerStdout = '';
+
+    queries.getExistingNodeIds = (...args) => {
+      const ids = getIds(...args);
+      const observer = spawnSync(
+        process.execPath,
+        [BIN, 'status', root, '--json'],
+        {
+          encoding: 'utf8',
+          timeout: 15000,
+          cwd: root,
+          env: { ...process.env, CODEGRAPH_NO_DAEMON: '1' },
+        },
+      );
+      observerRan = true;
+      observerStatus = observer.status;
+      observerStdout = observer.stdout;
+      return ids;
+    };
+
+    // Before fix, this fails with "database is locked" (SQLITE_BUSY_SNAPSHOT 517)
+    // because codegraph status ran open-time secondary index recovery.
+    expect(() => {
+      queries.insertEdges([{ source: 'a', target: 'b', kind: 'calls' }]);
+    }).not.toThrow();
+
+    expect(observerRan).toBe(true);
+    expect(observerStatus).toBe(0);
+    expect(observerStdout).toContain('nodeCount');
+  });
+});
diff --git a/src/bin/codegraph.ts b/src/bin/codegraph.ts
index 95a291a565..c953bab74f 100644
--- a/src/bin/codegraph.ts
+++ b/src/bin/codegraph.ts
@@ -1123,7 +1123,7 @@ program
       }
 
       const { default: CodeGraph } = await loadCodeGraph();
-      const cg = await CodeGraph.open(projectPath);
+      const cg = await CodeGraph.open(projectPath, { readOnly: true });
       const stats = cg.getStats();
       const changes = cg.getChangedFiles();
       const backend = cg.getBackend();