diff --git a/backend/app/database/falkor/code-graph-backend/api/graph.py b/backend/app/database/falkor/code-graph-backend/api/graph.py
index 7c91405b..2a134ef9 100644
--- a/backend/app/database/falkor/code-graph-backend/api/graph.py
+++ b/backend/app/database/falkor/code-graph-backend/api/graph.py
@@ -46,20 +46,20 @@ def __init__(self, name: str) -> None:
 
         # Initialize the backlog as disabled by default
         self.backlog = None
-
         # create indicies
+        self._safe_create_index(self.g.create_node_range_index, "File", "name", "ext")
+        self._safe_create_index(self.g.create_node_fulltext_index, "Searchable", "name")
 
-        # index File path, name and ext fields
+    def _safe_create_index(self, func, label, *args):
         try:
-            self.g.create_node_range_index("File", "name", "ext")
-        except Exception:
-            pass
+            func(label, *args)
+            logging.debug(f"Successfully created/verified index for '{label}'.")
+        except Exception as e:
+            if "already exists" in str(e).lower():
+                logging.info(f"Index for '{label}' already exists.")
+            else:
+                logging.error(f"Failed to create index for '{label}': {e}", exc_info=True)
 
-        # index Function using full-text search
-        try:
-            self.g.create_node_fulltext_index("Searchable", "name")
-        except Exception:
-            pass
 
     def clone(self, clone: str) -> "Graph":
         """
diff --git a/backend/config.py b/backend/config.py
index dd5caa3d..e94c76d4 100644
--- a/backend/config.py
+++ b/backend/config.py
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 from dotenv import load_dotenv, find_dotenv
+import logging
 import os
 
 
@@ -12,5 +13,9 @@
 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"))
+try:
+    MAX_BATCH_SIZE = int(os.getenv("EMBEDDING_MAX_BATCH_SIZE", "32"))
+except ValueError:
+    logging.warning("Invalid integer for EMBEDDING_MAX_BATCH_SIZE. Defaulting to 32.")
+    MAX_BATCH_SIZE = 32
 EMBEDDING_DEVICE = os.getenv("EMBEDDING_DEVICE", "cpu")