diff --git a/admin/app/controllers/chats_controller.ts b/admin/app/controllers/chats_controller.ts
index f6ad4d7..005e60d 100644
--- a/admin/app/controllers/chats_controller.ts
+++ b/admin/app/controllers/chats_controller.ts
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ import { inject } from '@adonisjs/core'
 import type { HttpContext } from '@adonisjs/core/http'
 import { ChatService } from '#services/chat_service'
 import { createSessionSchema, updateSessionSchema, addMessageSchema } from '#validators/chat'
-import { parseBoolean } from '../utils/misc.js'
 import KVStore from '#models/kv_store'
 import { SystemService } from '#services/system_service'
 import { SERVICE_NAMES } from '../../constants/service_names.js'
@@ -20,7 +19,7 @@ export default class ChatsController {
     const chatSuggestionsEnabled = await KVStore.getValue('chat.suggestionsEnabled')
     return inertia.render('chat', {
       settings: {
-        chatSuggestionsEnabled: parseBoolean(chatSuggestionsEnabled),
+        chatSuggestionsEnabled: chatSuggestionsEnabled ?? false,
       },
     })
   }
diff --git a/admin/app/controllers/settings_controller.ts b/admin/app/controllers/settings_controller.ts
index 35f8800..2aebdd8 100644
--- a/admin/app/controllers/settings_controller.ts
+++ b/admin/app/controllers/settings_controller.ts
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ import { SystemService } from '#services/system_service';
 import { updateSettingSchema } from '#validators/settings';
 import { inject } from '@adonisjs/core';
 import type { HttpContext } from '@adonisjs/core/http'
-import { parseBoolean } from '../utils/misc.js';
+import type { KVStoreKey } from '../../types/kv_store.js';
 
 @inject()
 export default class SettingsController {
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ export default class SettingsController {
                 availableModels: availableModels?.models || [],
                 installedModels: installedModels || [],
                 settings: {
-                    chatSuggestionsEnabled: parseBoolean(chatSuggestionsEnabled)
+                    chatSuggestionsEnabled: chatSuggestionsEnabled ?? false
                 }
             }
         });
@@ -98,7 +98,7 @@ export default class SettingsController {
 
     async getSetting({ request, response }: HttpContext) {
         const key = request.qs().key;
-        const value = await KVStore.getValue(key);
+        const value = await KVStore.getValue(key as KVStoreKey);
         return response.status(200).send({ key, value });
     }
 
diff --git a/admin/app/jobs/check_update_job.ts b/admin/app/jobs/check_update_job.ts
index e4fa59b..046d9c0 100644
--- a/admin/app/jobs/check_update_job.ts
+++ b/admin/app/jobs/check_update_job.ts
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ export class CheckUpdateJob {
           `[CheckUpdateJob] Update available: ${result.currentVersion} → ${result.latestVersion}`
         )
       } else {
-        await KVStore.setValue('system.updateAvailable', "false")
+        await KVStore.setValue('system.updateAvailable', false)
         logger.info(
           `[CheckUpdateJob] System is up to date (${result.currentVersion})`
         )
diff --git a/admin/app/models/kv_store.ts b/admin/app/models/kv_store.ts
index b483b3f..caad66f 100644
--- a/admin/app/models/kv_store.ts
+++ b/admin/app/models/kv_store.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 import { DateTime } from 'luxon'
 import { BaseModel, column, SnakeCaseNamingStrategy } from '@adonisjs/lucid/orm'
-import type { KVStoreKey, KVStoreValue } from '../../types/kv_store.js'
+import { KV_STORE_SCHEMA, type KVStoreKey, type KVStoreValue } from '../../types/kv_store.js'
+import { parseBoolean } from '../utils/misc.js'
 
 /**
  * Generic key-value store model for storing various settings
@@ -17,7 +18,7 @@ export default class KVStore extends BaseModel {
   declare key: KVStoreKey
 
   @column()
-  declare value: KVStoreValue
+  declare value: string | null
 
   @column.dateTime({ autoCreate: true })
   declare created_at: DateTime
@@ -26,26 +27,25 @@ export default class KVStore extends BaseModel {
   declare updated_at: DateTime
 
   /**
-   * Get a setting value by key
+   * Get a setting value by key, automatically deserializing to the correct type.
    */
-  static async getValue(key: KVStoreKey): Promise<KVStoreValue> {
+  static async getValue<K extends KVStoreKey>(key: K): Promise<KVStoreValue<K> | null> {
     const setting = await this.findBy('key', key)
     if (!setting || setting.value === undefined || setting.value === null) {
       return null
     }
-    if (typeof setting.value === 'string') {
-      return setting.value
-    }
-    return String(setting.value)
+    const raw = String(setting.value)
+    return (KV_STORE_SCHEMA[key] === 'boolean' ? parseBoolean(raw) : raw) as KVStoreValue<K>
   }
 
   /**
-   * Set a setting value by key (creates if not exists)
+   * Set a setting value by key (creates if not exists), automatically serializing to string.
    */
-  static async setValue(key: KVStoreKey, value: KVStoreValue): Promise<KVStore> {
-    const setting = await this.firstOrCreate({ key }, { key, value })
-    if (setting.value !== value) {
-      setting.value = value
+  static async setValue<K extends KVStoreKey>(key: K, value: KVStoreValue<K>): Promise<KVStore> {
+    const serialized = String(value)
+    const setting = await this.firstOrCreate({ key }, { key, value: serialized })
+    if (setting.value !== serialized) {
+      setting.value = serialized
       await setting.save()
     }
     return setting
diff --git a/admin/app/services/docker_service.ts b/admin/app/services/docker_service.ts
index a87ff5b..cc5a00f 100644
--- a/admin/app/services/docker_service.ts
+++ b/admin/app/services/docker_service.ts
@@ -546,7 +546,7 @@ export class DockerService {
       // If Ollama was just installed, trigger Nomad docs discovery and embedding
       if (service.service_name === SERVICE_NAMES.OLLAMA) {
         logger.info('[DockerService] Ollama installation complete. Default behavior is to not enable chat suggestions.')
-        await KVStore.setValue('chat.suggestionsEnabled', "false")
+        await KVStore.setValue('chat.suggestionsEnabled', false)
 
         logger.info('[DockerService] Ollama installation complete. Triggering Nomad docs discovery...')
         
diff --git a/admin/app/services/rag_service.ts b/admin/app/services/rag_service.ts
index c2a4478..302cbbd 100644
--- a/admin/app/services/rag_service.ts
+++ b/admin/app/services/rag_service.ts
@@ -14,7 +14,6 @@ import { removeStopwords } from 'stopword'
 import { randomUUID } from 'node:crypto'
 import { join } from 'node:path'
 import KVStore from '#models/kv_store'
-import { parseBoolean } from '../utils/misc.js'
 import { ZIMExtractionService } from './zim_extraction_service.js'
 import { ZIM_BATCH_SIZE } from '../../constants/zim_extraction.js'
 
@@ -885,7 +884,7 @@ export class RagService {
       const DOCS_DIR = join(process.cwd(), 'docs')
 
       const alreadyEmbeddedRaw = await KVStore.getValue('rag.docsEmbedded')
-      if (parseBoolean(alreadyEmbeddedRaw) && !force) {
+      if (alreadyEmbeddedRaw && !force) {
         logger.info('[RAG] Nomad docs have already been discovered and queued. Skipping.')
         return { success: true, message: 'Nomad docs have already been discovered and queued. Skipping.' }
       }
@@ -927,7 +926,7 @@ export class RagService {
       }
 
       // Update KV store to mark docs as discovered so we don't redo this unnecessarily
-      await KVStore.setValue('rag.docsEmbedded', 'true')
+      await KVStore.setValue('rag.docsEmbedded', true)
 
       return { success: true, message: `Nomad docs discovery completed. Dispatched ${filesToEmbed.length} embedding jobs.` }
     } catch (error) {
diff --git a/admin/types/kv_store.ts b/admin/types/kv_store.ts
index 7d44ef5..c60adad 100644
--- a/admin/types/kv_store.ts
+++ b/admin/types/kv_store.ts
@@ -1,3 +1,13 @@
 
-export type KVStoreKey = 'chat.suggestionsEnabled' | 'rag.docsEmbedded' | 'system.updateAvailable' | 'system.latestVersion' | 'ui.hasVisitedEasySetup'
-export type KVStoreValue = string | null
\ No newline at end of file
+export const KV_STORE_SCHEMA = {
+  'chat.suggestionsEnabled': 'boolean',
+  'rag.docsEmbedded':        'boolean',
+  'system.updateAvailable':  'boolean',
+  'system.latestVersion':    'string',
+  'ui.hasVisitedEasySetup':  'boolean',
+} as const
+
+type KVTagToType<T extends string> = T extends 'boolean' ? boolean : string
+
+export type KVStoreKey = keyof typeof KV_STORE_SCHEMA
+export type KVStoreValue<K extends KVStoreKey> = KVTagToType<(typeof KV_STORE_SCHEMA)[K]>