diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
index 61b427a..a50bf7a 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -101,6 +101,13 @@ services:
     build:
       context: ./docker/php
     restart: unless-stopped
+    # Safe here (unlike wordpress's own service): this is a plain shell loop,
+    # not php-fpm's master process, which needs to start as root so it can
+    # drop privileges to its www-data workers itself. Missed in the earlier
+    # root-hardening pass — found via a real bug: this container writing
+    # wp-cron-triggered uploads as root, silently blocking www-data-run
+    # wp-cli commands from writing new files into those same directories.
+    user: www-data
     depends_on:
       - wordpress
     entrypoint: ["/bin/sh", "/usr/local/bin/cron-entrypoint.sh"]
diff --git a/docker/cron/entrypoint.sh b/docker/cron/entrypoint.sh
index 01c8d84..6181fd2 100755
--- a/docker/cron/entrypoint.sh
+++ b/docker/cron/entrypoint.sh
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ set -eu
 echo "bookstore-core cron sidecar starting (60s interval)"
 
 while true; do
-  if ! wp cron event run --due-now --path=/var/www/html --allow-root 2>/tmp/cron-last-error.log; then
+  if ! wp cron event run --due-now --path=/var/www/html 2>/tmp/cron-last-error.log; then
     echo "cron run failed: $(cat /tmp/cron-last-error.log)"
   fi
   sleep 60
diff --git a/wp-content/plugins/bookstore-core/includes/Cli/Commands.php b/wp-content/plugins/bookstore-core/includes/Cli/Commands.php
index 63beca7..57b8831 100644
--- a/wp-content/plugins/bookstore-core/includes/Cli/Commands.php
+++ b/wp-content/plugins/bookstore-core/includes/Cli/Commands.php
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ use Bookstore\Core\Catalog\Work;
 use Bookstore\Core\Import\GutenbergImporter;
 use Bookstore\Core\Import\SyntheticOfferGenerator;
 use Bookstore\Core\Integration\HardcoverAdapter;
+use Bookstore\Core\Product\CoverSync;
 use Bookstore\Core\Product\ProductSync;
 use Bookstore\Core\Taxonomy\TagTaxonomies;
 
@@ -190,4 +191,44 @@ class Commands
 
         \WP_CLI::success("Hardcover sync: {$matched} matched, {$missed} missed, {$processed} processed.");
     }
+
+    /**
+     * Attaches a real product image from Open Library's Covers API to
+     * each Work's product (skips products that already have one).
+     *
+     * ## OPTIONS
+     *
+     * [--limit=<number>]
+     * : Max works to process this run (default: all).
+     *
+     * [--delay-ms=<number>]
+     * : Delay between lookups in milliseconds (default 1000) — stays
+     * comfortably under Open Library's stated 100-requests-per-5-minutes
+     * rate limit for search-based lookups.
+     *
+     * ## EXAMPLES
+     *
+     *     wp bookstore sync-covers --limit=20
+     *
+     * @subcommand sync-covers
+     */
+    public function sync_covers($args, $assoc_args)
+    {
+        $limit = isset($assoc_args['limit']) ? (int) $assoc_args['limit'] : PHP_INT_MAX;
+        $delay_ms = (int) ($assoc_args['delay-ms'] ?? 1000);
+
+        $result = CoverSync::sync_all($limit, $delay_ms, function (int $processed, int $attached, int $missed) {
+            if ($processed % 10 === 0) {
+                \WP_CLI::log("  processed {$processed} (attached {$attached}, missed {$missed})...");
+            }
+        });
+
+        \WP_CLI::success(sprintf(
+            'Covers: %d attached, %d missed, %d already had one, %d processed.',
+            $result['attached'],
+            $result['missed'],
+            $result['skipped'],
+            $result['processed']
+        ));
+    }
 }
diff --git a/wp-content/plugins/bookstore-core/includes/Import/GutenbergImporter.php b/wp-content/plugins/bookstore-core/includes/Import/GutenbergImporter.php
index 093d6b4..382933c 100644
--- a/wp-content/plugins/bookstore-core/includes/Import/GutenbergImporter.php
+++ b/wp-content/plugins/bookstore-core/includes/Import/GutenbergImporter.php
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ class GutenbergImporter
             throw new \RuntimeException('PG catalog file is empty');
         }
         $col = array_flip($header);
-        foreach (['Text#', 'Type', 'Issued', 'Title', 'Language', 'Authors', 'Subjects'] as $required) {
+        foreach (['Text#', 'Type', 'Issued', 'Title', 'Language', 'Authors', 'Subjects', 'LoCC'] as $required) {
             if (!isset($col[$required])) {
                 fclose($handle);
                 throw new \RuntimeException("PG catalog missing expected column: {$required}");
@@ -79,6 +79,9 @@ class GutenbergImporter
             if ($pg_id <= 0 || $title === '') {
                 continue;
             }
+            if (!self::is_literature($row[$col['LoCC']] ?? '')) {
+                continue; // government documents, speeches, law, history — not "books"
+            }
 
             $isbn13 = self::synthetic_isbn13($pg_id);
             if (Isbn::exists($isbn13)) {
@@ -132,6 +135,28 @@ class GutenbergImporter
         return $body . $check;
     }
 
+    /**
+     * LoCC (Library of Congress Classification) is real, structured data —
+     * verified against PG's actual catalog: novels consistently get a P*
+     * code (Language & Literature: PR English, PQ Romance languages, PS
+     * American, PZ fiction, etc.), while speeches/legal/historical
+     * documents get E/JK/KF/DA (History, Political Science, Law) and
+     * never a P code at all. A row can have several semicolon-separated
+     * LoCC codes; any one of them starting with P is enough to count as
+     * literature. Missing LoCC data is treated as "not a book" — stricter
+     * than necessary for a handful of edge cases, but matches what was
+     * actually asked for: no non-book documents in the catalog.
+     */
+    private static function is_literature(string $locc_raw): bool
+    {
+        foreach (explode(';', $locc_raw) as $code) {
+            if (str_starts_with(ltrim($code), 'P')) {
+                return true;
+            }
+        }
+        return false;
+    }
+
     /**
      * PG's Authors column lists every contributor for anthology/collection
      * works (sometimes dozens, semicolon-separated), which can run well
diff --git a/wp-content/plugins/bookstore-core/includes/Integration/OpenLibraryAdapter.php b/wp-content/plugins/bookstore-core/includes/Integration/OpenLibraryAdapter.php
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ca21a7c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/wp-content/plugins/bookstore-core/includes/Integration/OpenLibraryAdapter.php
@@ -0,0 +1,126 @@
+<?php
+
+namespace Bookstore\Core\Integration;
+
+defined('ABSPATH') || exit;
+
+/**
+ * Open Library Covers API — free, keyless, and explicitly licensed for
+ * this ("intended for displaying covers on public facing websites," their
+ * own docs). Verified directly (not inferred): a missing cover still
+ * returns HTTP 200, but as a 43-byte 1x1 placeholder GIF with no
+ * content-type header, versus a real cover's `content-type: image/jpeg`
+ * — status code alone can't tell the two apart.
+ *
+ * A Range-header HEAD-equivalent probe was tried first to avoid a double
+ * fetch, but Open Library's server does something different with Range
+ * present (redirects to an archive.org URL with a content-type that
+ * doesn't reflect the real resource) — confirmed by testing a known-fake
+ * ISBN through it and getting a false positive. Simpler and correct: just
+ * fetch once, verify the actual bytes.
+ *
+ * Also confirmed directly: their search endpoint has real transient
+ * failures under repeated querying (the exact same request for the exact
+ * same well-known book failed once, then succeeded seconds later with no
+ * code change) — every HTTP call here retries on network errors/5xx
+ * rather than treating one glitch as a permanent "no cover found."
+ */
+class OpenLibraryAdapter
+{
+    private const COVERS_BASE = 'https://covers.openlibrary.org/b';
+    private const SEARCH_URL = 'https://openlibrary.org/search.json';
+    private const DEFAULT_DELAY_MS = 1000;
+    private const MIN_REAL_COVER_BYTES = 1000; // the placeholder is 43 bytes; any real cover is far larger
+
+    /**
+     * Tries ISBN first (works once real supplier ISBNs exist), falls back
+     * to title+author search via Open Library's `cover_i` field (needed
+     * for the current Gutenberg-synthetic catalog, whose ISBNs are fake).
+     * Returns the actual image bytes, not a URL — verifying "is this a
+     * real cover" requires the bytes anyway, so there's no cheaper
+     * intermediate step worth returning.
+     */
+    public static function fetch_cover(string $isbn13, string $title, ?string $author, string $size = 'L'): ?string
+    {
+        $bytes = self::fetch_and_verify(self::COVERS_BASE . "/isbn/{$isbn13}-{$size}.jpg");
+        if ($bytes) {
+            return $bytes;
+        }
+
+        $cover_id = self::search_cover_id($title, $author);
+        if ($cover_id === null) {
+            return null;
+        }
+
+        return self::fetch_and_verify(self::COVERS_BASE . "/id/{$cover_id}-{$size}.jpg");
+    }
+
+    public static function throttle(int $delay_ms = self::DEFAULT_DELAY_MS): void
+    {
+        usleep($delay_ms * 1000);
+    }
+
+    private static function fetch_and_verify(string $url): ?string
+    {
+        $response = self::get_with_retry($url);
+        if ($response === null) {
+            return null;
+        }
+        if (wp_remote_retrieve_header($response, 'content-type') !== 'image/jpeg') {
+            return null;
+        }
+        $body = wp_remote_retrieve_body($response);
+        if (strlen($body) < self::MIN_REAL_COVER_BYTES) {
+            return null; // the 1x1 placeholder, not a real cover
+        }
+        return $body;
+    }
+
+    private static function search_cover_id(string $title, ?string $author): ?int
+    {
+        $args = ['title' => $title, 'limit' => 5, 'fields' => 'cover_i,author_name'];
+        if ($author) {
+            $args['author'] = $author;
+        }
+        $url = self::SEARCH_URL . '?' . http_build_query($args);
+
+        $response = self::get_with_retry($url);
+        if ($response === null) {
+            return null;
+        }
+
+        $data = json_decode(wp_remote_retrieve_body($response), true);
+        foreach ($data['docs'] ?? [] as $doc) {
+            if (!empty($doc['cover_i'])) {
+                return (int) $doc['cover_i'];
+            }
+        }
+        return null;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Retries on network errors and 5xx/429 — real, observed transient
+     * failures, not hypothetical. Does NOT retry a clean 200 that just
+     * isn't what we wanted (a legitimate "no cover"/"no match" result is
+     * not a glitch and retrying it would just waste requests).
+     */
+    private static function get_with_retry(string $url, int $max_attempts = 3, int $retry_delay_ms = 500): ?array
+    {
+        for ($attempt = 1; $attempt <= $max_attempts; $attempt++) {
+            $response = wp_remote_get($url, ['timeout' => 20]);
+            if (!is_wp_error($response)) {
+                $code = wp_remote_retrieve_response_code($response);
+                if ($code === 200) {
+                    return $response;
+                }
+                if ($code < 500 && $code !== 429) {
+                    return null; // a definitive non-transient response (404, etc.)
+                }
+            }
+            if ($attempt < $max_attempts) {
+                usleep($retry_delay_ms * 1000);
+            }
+        }
+        return null;
+    }
+}
diff --git a/wp-content/plugins/bookstore-core/includes/Product/CoverSync.php b/wp-content/plugins/bookstore-core/includes/Product/CoverSync.php
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..df4b593
--- /dev/null
+++ b/wp-content/plugins/bookstore-core/includes/Product/CoverSync.php
@@ -0,0 +1,105 @@
+<?php
+
+namespace Bookstore\Core\Product;
+
+use Bookstore\Core\Catalog\Isbn;
+use Bookstore\Core\Catalog\Work;
+use Bookstore\Core\Integration\OpenLibraryAdapter;
+
+defined('ABSPATH') || exit;
+
+/**
+ * Attaches a real Media Library image to each Work's product — not a
+ * hotlinked <img src>, which wouldn't show up in the shop loop, gallery,
+ * or structured data (those all read from a real attachment). Skips
+ * products that already have one, so re-runs are idempotent and cheap.
+ */
+class CoverSync
+{
+    /**
+     * @param callable|null $on_progress function(int $processed, int $attached, int $missed): void
+     * @return array{attached: int, missed: int, skipped: int, processed: int}
+     */
+    public static function sync_all(int $limit, int $delay_ms, ?callable $on_progress = null): array
+    {
+        require_once ABSPATH . 'wp-admin/includes/image.php';
+
+        $attached = 0;
+        $missed = 0;
+        $skipped = 0;
+        $processed = 0;
+        $offset = 0;
+        $batch_size = 50;
+
+        while ($processed < $limit) {
+            $works = Work::all_paginated($batch_size, $offset);
+            if (empty($works)) {
+                break;
+            }
+
+            foreach ($works as $work) {
+                if ($processed >= $limit) {
+                    break;
+                }
+
+                $product_id = (int) ($work->wc_product_id ?? 0);
+                if (!$product_id) {
+                    continue; // no product yet — run sync-products first
+                }
+                if (has_post_thumbnail($product_id)) {
+                    $skipped++;
+                    continue;
+                }
+
+                $isbns = Isbn::isbns_for_work((int) $work->work_id);
+                $isbn13 = $isbns[0] ?? '';
+
+                $bytes = OpenLibraryAdapter::fetch_cover($isbn13, $work->title, $work->primary_author);
+                if ($bytes) {
+                    if (self::attach_cover($product_id, $work->title, $bytes)) {
+                        $attached++;
+                    } else {
+                        $missed++;
+                    }
+                } else {
+                    $missed++;
+                }
+
+                $processed++;
+                OpenLibraryAdapter::throttle($delay_ms);
+
+                if ($on_progress) {
+                    $on_progress($processed, $attached, $missed);
+                }
+            }
+
+            $offset += $batch_size;
+        }
+
+        return ['attached' => $attached, 'missed' => $missed, 'skipped' => $skipped, 'processed' => $processed];
+    }
+
+    private static function attach_cover(int $product_id, string $title, string $bytes): bool
+    {
+        $filename = sanitize_file_name($title) . '-cover.jpg';
+        $upload = wp_upload_bits($filename, null, $bytes);
+        if (!empty($upload['error'])) {
+            return false;
+        }
+
+        $attachment_id = wp_insert_attachment([
+            'post_mime_type' => 'image/jpeg',
+            'post_title' => $title . ' cover',
+            'post_status' => 'inherit',
+        ], $upload['file'], $product_id);
+
+        if (!$attachment_id || is_wp_error($attachment_id)) {
+            return false;
+        }
+
+        $metadata = wp_generate_attachment_metadata($attachment_id, $upload['file']);
+        wp_update_attachment_metadata($attachment_id, $metadata);
+
+        return (bool) set_post_thumbnail($product_id, $attachment_id);
+    }
+}