diff --git a/app/core/chunk_payload.py b/app/core/chunk_payload.py
index 5bb17df..375da04 100644
--- a/app/core/chunk_payload.py
+++ b/app/core/chunk_payload.py
@@ -254,13 +254,14 @@ def make_chunk_payloads(
         if note_title is not None:
             pl["title"] = note_title
         if note_tags is not None:
-        # propagate optional retriever_weight from frontmatter
-        if frontmatter.get("retriever_weight") is not None:
-            try:
-                pl["retriever_weight"] = float(frontmatter.get("retriever_weight"))
-            except Exception:
-                pass
             pl["tags"] = note_tags
+        # propagate optional retriever_weight from frontmatter
+        try:
+            _rw = frontmatter.get("retriever_weight") if isinstance(frontmatter, dict) else None
+            if _rw is not None:
+                pl["retriever_weight"] = float(_rw)
+        except Exception:
+            pass
         if token_counts[i] is not None:
             pl["token_count"] = int(token_counts[i])
         if section_titles[i] is not None: