diff --git a/services/worker/src/workers/proxy.js b/services/worker/src/workers/proxy.js
index c5e51a9..7330302 100644
--- a/services/worker/src/workers/proxy.js
+++ b/services/worker/src/workers/proxy.js
@@ -78,21 +78,25 @@ export const proxyWorker = async (job) => {
   const outputPath = join(tmpDir, `proxy-output-${job.id}.mp4`);
 
   try {
+    // Look up the asset row early — check status before doing any work,
+    // and read media_type for routing decisions below.
+    const assetRow = await query(
+      'SELECT status, media_type FROM assets WHERE id = $1',
+      [assetId]
+    );
+    const asset = assetRow.rows[0];
+    const dbMediaType = asset?.media_type || null;
+
+    if (asset?.status === 'pending_migration') {
+      console.log(`[proxy] asset ${assetId} is pending_migration, skipping`);
+      return;
+    }
+
     // Download original from S3
     await job.updateProgress(10);
     console.log(`[proxy] Downloading ${inputKey} for asset ${assetId}`);
     await downloadFromS3(S3_BUCKET, inputKey, inputPath);
 
-    // Look up the asset row early — we want media_type before deciding how
-    // to process. That lets us route 'image' assets to the poster path even
-    // when ffprobe doesn't return a codec name in IMAGE_CODECS (e.g. future
-    // formats like AVIF / HEIF / JPEG-XL).
-    const assetRow = await query(
-      'SELECT media_type FROM assets WHERE id = $1',
-      [assetId]
-    );
-    const dbMediaType = assetRow.rows[0]?.media_type || null;
-
     // Reject obviously-empty inputs before handing them to ffmpeg. Aborted
     // SRT/RTMP recordings end up as 0-byte (or ftyp-only ~1KB) objects in S3
     // when the source disconnects before any frame is received; the proxy