diff --git a/backend/config.py b/backend/config.py
index dd5caa3..89bc658 100644
--- a/backend/config.py
+++ b/backend/config.py
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
-from dotenv import load_dotenv, find_dotenv
+import logging
 import os
+from dotenv import load_dotenv, find_dotenv
 
+logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
 dotenv_path = find_dotenv(usecwd=True)
 if dotenv_path:
@@ -12,5 +14,14 @@
 GITHUB_TOKEN = os.getenv("GITHUB_TOKEN") or os.getenv("GH_TOKEN")
 
 MODEL_NAME = os.getenv("EMBEDDING_MODEL", "BAAI/bge-small-en-v1.5")
-MAX_BATCH_SIZE = int(os.getenv("EMBEDDING_MAX_BATCH_SIZE", "32"))
+
+raw_batch_size = os.getenv("EMBEDDING_MAX_BATCH_SIZE", "32")
+try:
+    MAX_BATCH_SIZE = int(raw_batch_size)
+    if MAX_BATCH_SIZE <= 0:
+        raise ValueError
+except ValueError:
+    logger.warning("Invalid EMBEDDING_MAX_BATCH_SIZE '%s'. Defaulting to 32.", raw_batch_size)
+    MAX_BATCH_SIZE = 32
+
 EMBEDDING_DEVICE = os.getenv("EMBEDDING_DEVICE", "cpu")