diff --git a/multiplayer-next.md b/multiplayer-next.md
index 8eb42c27..d2eb7242 100644
--- a/multiplayer-next.md
+++ b/multiplayer-next.md
@@ -135,8 +135,10 @@ product policy are in [`docs/MATCHMAKING.md`](docs/MATCHMAKING.md).
 - [ ] **IN PROGRESS:** Fence proposals/participants in a PostgreSQL serializable transaction;
   prove loss of an acknowledged Redis write cannot split players. The Go store
   adapter now performs proposal insertion, participant insertion, and every
-  queue-ticket promotion in one rollback-safe SERIALIZABLE callback; live DB/
-  Redis failover testing remains.
+  queue-ticket promotion in one rollback-safe SERIALIZABLE callback; the runnable
+  casual matcher can optionally use a Redis candidate projection and repairs an
+  empty/lost index from PostgreSQL before claiming durably; live DB/Redis failover
+  testing remains.
 - [ ] Casual: target 3v3 humans, after 60 s allow >=2 humans (one/team) plus
   bots, kickoff-only human backfill and no backfill loss/decline penalty.
 - [ ] **IN PROGRESS:** Ranked: exactly six humans, solo-only, no bots/backfill,
diff --git a/multiplayer-todo.md b/multiplayer-todo.md
index 518160f5..497fc3e7 100644
--- a/multiplayer-todo.md
+++ b/multiplayer-todo.md
@@ -1196,7 +1196,7 @@ the local/CI/community transport, not a silent production fallback.
 | 8.15 `[D:7.8,8.3]` | **IN PROGRESS.** Pure Go probe validation treats Steam location as opaque, requires nonce/freshness/region and server-computed RTT, and implements discrepancy quarantine/release; authenticated HTTP now accepts only opaque location/nonce input through a server-owned probe provider and records validated RTT into the active player's durable queue ticket; durable queue projections have a server-derived RTT JSON field for matcher reads | `server/domain/probes.go`, `server/migrations/0003_queue_probe_metadata.sql`, adversarial fixtures and `server/api/service.go`/`store/queue_sql.go` cover stale/wrong/forged evidence, the 25 ms/30% threshold, three-sample quarantine, five-clean release, authenticated provider arguments, rejection of client RTT fields, player/ticket/expiry binding, persistence failure, playlist-scoped candidate reads and bounded metadata decoding; Steam coordinator, regional probe adapters and multi-region probe population remain |
 | 8.16 `[D:8.14,8.15]` | **IN PROGRESS.** Pure Go candidate/team selection implements the <=100 ms ceiling, pairwise widening tolerance, anchor inclusion, deterministic set/region scoring and balanced team partitioning; queue-backed formation now consumes the server-owned projection, fences duplicate player identities and rejects playlist/build/protocol mixing; the matcher worker performs bounded formation and delegates the final claim to the durable proposal transaction | `server/domain/matcher.go`, `teams.go`, `server/matcher/worker.go` and adversarial fixtures cover no-common-region, tolerance boundaries, lexical ties, mean-rating balance, malformed candidates, duplicate identities, compatibility mismatches, incomplete batches, source failure, durable claim failure and queue-backed oldest-anchor formation; ranked provider and long-running worker integration remain |
 | 8.17 `[D:8.14,8.16]` | **IN PROGRESS.** Pure Go proposal policy sends a 10-second response window to every selected human, requires unanimous acceptance, applies exact decline/timeout cooldowns and ranked escalation; authenticated API exposes revisioned accept/decline mutations; formed matches now pass through a playlist-aware proposal boundary | `server/domain/proposal.go`, `formation.go` and `server/api/service.go` plus adversarial fixtures cover partial/unanimous response, expiry, replay/conflict, stale API revision, casual lineup preparation and ranked metadata validation; queue precedence and allocation integration remain |
-| 8.18 `[D:8.5,8.14,8.17]` | **IN PROGRESS.** Go store layer defines PostgreSQL SERIALIZABLE whole-transaction retries and queue candidate/proposal claim SQL using `FOR UPDATE SKIP LOCKED` plus durable uniqueness/revision fences; proposal creation now inserts proposal/participants and promotes every ticket in one rollback-safe transaction with player- and playlist-bound claim predicates, queue creation has a durable idempotency/owner-read adapter, participant-scoped proposal recovery now expires OPEN proposals and pending participants transactionally at read time, and proposal accept/decline now uses participant/proposal locks, revision fencing and durable idempotency; response attempts also advance expired proposals and pending participants before returning closed; runnable casual matcher polling now reads an authoritative PostgreSQL candidate batch and delegates its final claim to this transaction | `server/store/serializable.go`, `queue_sql.go`, `proposal_sql.go`, `proposal_recovery_sql.go`, `server/matcher/worker.go` and tests cover retry classification, claim-boundary invariants, player/ticket/playlist mapping, durable queue replay/conflict, owner-scoped queue/proposal recovery, expiry at read and mutation boundaries, response replay/conflict, stale revisions, zero-row claim aborts, atomic statement ordering, incomplete matcher batches and source/claim failures; opt-in PostgreSQL execution now covers queue create/replay/fencing, assignment persistence, proposal claim/promotion, participant recovery, unanimous response and rollback of partial claims; ranked provider, Redis-backed worker repair, worker-failure and concurrent two-matcher integration tests remain |
+| 8.18 `[D:8.5,8.14,8.17]` | **IN PROGRESS.** Go store layer defines PostgreSQL SERIALIZABLE whole-transaction retries and queue candidate/proposal claim SQL using `FOR UPDATE SKIP LOCKED` plus durable uniqueness/revision fences; proposal creation now inserts proposal/participants and promotes every ticket in one rollback-safe transaction with player- and playlist-bound claim predicates, queue creation has a durable idempotency/owner-read adapter, participant-scoped proposal recovery now expires OPEN proposals and pending participants transactionally at read time, and proposal accept/decline now uses participant/proposal locks, revision fencing and durable idempotency; response attempts also advance expired proposals and pending participants before returning closed; runnable casual matcher polling now supports an optional Redis candidate projection that repairs empty/lost cache state from authoritative PostgreSQL before the durable final claim | `server/store/serializable.go`, `queue_sql.go`, `proposal_sql.go`, `proposal_recovery_sql.go`, `redis_candidates.go`, `server/matcher/worker.go` and tests cover retry classification, claim-boundary invariants, player/ticket/playlist mapping, durable queue replay/conflict, owner-scoped queue/proposal recovery, expiry at read and mutation boundaries, response replay/conflict, stale revisions, zero-row claim aborts, atomic statement ordering, incomplete matcher batches, source failures and empty-index Redis repair; opt-in PostgreSQL execution now covers queue create/replay/fencing, assignment persistence, proposal claim/promotion, participant recovery, unanimous response and rollback of partial claims; ranked provider, worker-failure and concurrent two-matcher integration tests remain |
 | 8.19 `[D:8.18]` | **IN PROGRESS.** Pure Go casual lineup requires 2–6 humans with at least one per team, fills missing slots with explicit bots, permits kickoff-only bot-slot backfill and assigns no backfill penalty/rating update; proposal preparation now derives the lineup from formed teams | `server/domain/casual.go`, `formation.go` cover both-team minimum, bot shape, live-play rejection, zero-penalty backfill and casual proposal composition; queue candidate selection, opt-in 10 s backfill proposals, reconnect/leave penalties and live integration remain |
 | 8.20 `[D:8.18]` | **IN PROGRESS.** Pure Go ranked admission requires six unique verified solo humans, rejects bots/backfill/parties, and allows only random-enabled non-elevated arenas; proposal preparation requires matching metadata for every formed player | `server/domain/ranked.go`, `formation.go` cover count, identity, party, bot/backfill, arena eligibility and formed-player metadata rejection; `ArenaRegistry` integration, allocation wiring and innocent-ticket restoration remain |
 | 8.21 `[D:8.5,8.20]` | **IN PROGRESS.** Pure Go rating core implements canonical Glicko-2, daily inactivity, ranked 1/3 and casual 1/N human-opponent weights, deterministic opponent ordering, and authoritative draw/overtime/abandon scoring; certified result completion now applies per-player updates inside the durable transaction with lexical row locks and revision increments | `server/domain/rating.go`, `server/store/result_sql.go` and tests cover canonical/inactivity/weight/invalid-input, draw/OT/abandon, ordered participant snapshots, lock/value re-read and rating update SQL; live PostgreSQL rating, seasons and concurrent result transaction tests remain |
diff --git a/server/cmd/matcher/main.go b/server/cmd/matcher/main.go
index 3ca4a295..0b038940 100644
--- a/server/cmd/matcher/main.go
+++ b/server/cmd/matcher/main.go
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/cosmic-clash/cosmic-clash/server/migrations"
 	"github.com/cosmic-clash/cosmic-clash/server/store"
 	_ "github.com/jackc/pgx/v5/stdlib"
+	"github.com/redis/go-redis/v9"
 )
 
 func main() {
@@ -24,6 +25,9 @@ func main() {
 	playlist := flag.String("playlist", string(domain.Casual), "playlist to match; ranked requires a provider-enabled role")
 	size := flag.Int("size", 4, "players per match")
 	interval := flag.Duration("interval", time.Second, "poll interval")
+	redisAddr := flag.String("redis-addr", os.Getenv("COSMIC_CLASH_REDIS_ADDR"), "optional Redis candidate projection address")
+	redisPrefix := flag.String("redis-prefix", envOrDefault("COSMIC_CLASH_REDIS_PREFIX", "cosmic-clash"), "Redis key prefix")
+	redisTTL := flag.Duration("redis-ttl", 60*time.Second, "TTL for transient candidate projection entries")
 	flag.Parse()
 	if *dsn == "" {
 		fatalf("--dsn or COSMIC_CLASH_POSTGRES_DSN is required")
@@ -31,6 +35,9 @@ func main() {
 	if *playlist != string(domain.Casual) {
 		fatalf("unsupported playlist %q; only casual is currently enabled", *playlist)
 	}
+	if *redisTTL <= 0 {
+		fatalf("--redis-ttl must be positive")
+	}
 	db, err := sql.Open("pgx", *dsn)
 	if err != nil {
 		fatalf("open PostgreSQL: %v", err)
@@ -45,8 +52,37 @@ func main() {
 		fatalf("apply migrations: %v", err)
 	}
 	now := func() time.Time { return time.Now().UTC() }
+	var redisClient *redis.Client
+	var projection *store.CandidateProjection
+	if *redisAddr != "" {
+		redisClient = redis.NewClient(&redis.Options{Addr: *redisAddr})
+		defer redisClient.Close()
+		candidateProjection := store.CandidateProjection{
+			Index: store.RedisCandidateIndex{Client: redisClient, Prefix: *redisPrefix, TTL: *redisTTL},
+			Source: func(ctx context.Context, at time.Time) ([]domain.Candidate, error) {
+				return store.ListQueuedCandidates(ctx, db, domain.Casual, at, 1000)
+			},
+		}
+		projection = &candidateProjection
+	}
 	worker := matcher.Worker{
 		Source: func(ctx context.Context, at time.Time, playlist domain.Playlist, limit int) ([]domain.Candidate, error) {
+			if projection != nil {
+				candidates, err := projection.Snapshot(ctx, at)
+				if err != nil {
+					return nil, err
+				}
+				if len(candidates) > limit {
+					candidates = candidates[:limit]
+				}
+				filtered := make([]domain.Candidate, 0, len(candidates))
+				for _, candidate := range candidates {
+					if candidate.Playlist == playlist {
+						filtered = append(filtered, candidate)
+					}
+				}
+				return filtered, nil
+			}
 			return store.ListQueuedCandidates(ctx, db, playlist, at, limit)
 		},
 		Creator: matcher.ProposalCreatorFunc(func(ctx context.Context, proposal domain.Proposal, ticketIDs map[string]string, at time.Time) error {
@@ -65,6 +101,13 @@ func main() {
 	}
 }
 
+func envOrDefault(name, fallback string) string {
+	if value := os.Getenv(name); value != "" {
+		return value
+	}
+	return fallback
+}
+
 func fatalf(format string, args ...any) {
 	log.Printf("matcher: "+format, args...)
 	os.Exit(1)
diff --git a/server/store/candidate_projection_test.go b/server/store/candidate_projection_test.go
index dbf69dc4..d93b5415 100644
--- a/server/store/candidate_projection_test.go
+++ b/server/store/candidate_projection_test.go
@@ -46,3 +46,28 @@ func TestCandidateProjectionDoesNotReturnCacheWhenRepairSourceFails(t *testing.T
 		t.Fatal("cache projection succeeded without a usable Redis/index source")
 	}
 }
+
+func TestCandidateProjectionRepairsEmptyIndexFromDurableSource(t *testing.T) {
+	mini, err := miniredis.Run()
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	defer mini.Close()
+	client := redis.NewClient(&redis.Options{Addr: mini.Addr()})
+	defer client.Close()
+	now := time.Unix(1000, 0).UTC()
+	candidate := domain.Candidate{TicketID: "miss-ticket", PlayerID: "miss-player", EnqueuedAt: now}
+	projection := CandidateProjection{
+		Index: RedisCandidateIndex{Client: client, Prefix: "miss", TTL: time.Minute},
+		Source: func(context.Context, time.Time) ([]domain.Candidate, error) {
+			return []domain.Candidate{candidate}, nil
+		},
+	}
+	got, err := projection.Snapshot(context.Background(), now)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if len(got) != 1 || got[0].TicketID != candidate.TicketID {
+		t.Fatalf("empty-index repair = %+v", got)
+	}
+}
diff --git a/server/store/redis_candidates.go b/server/store/redis_candidates.go
index fa4c8308..ca91b3cd 100644
--- a/server/store/redis_candidates.go
+++ b/server/store/redis_candidates.go
@@ -49,6 +49,15 @@ func (p CandidateProjection) Snapshot(ctx context.Context, now time.Time) ([]dom
 	}
 	candidates, err := p.Index.Snapshot(ctx, now)
 	if err == nil {
+		// An empty index is indistinguishable from a Redis restart or a lost
+		// keyspace. Rebuild from PostgreSQL before returning so queued players
+		// are not hidden until the next enqueue mutation.
+		if len(candidates) == 0 {
+			if err := p.Repair(ctx, now); err != nil {
+				return nil, err
+			}
+			return p.Index.Snapshot(ctx, now)
+		}
 		return candidates, nil
 	}
 	if err := p.Repair(ctx, now); err != nil {