diff --git a/nemo_retriever/src/nemo_retriever/adapters/cli/sdk_workflow.py b/nemo_retriever/src/nemo_retriever/adapters/cli/sdk_workflow.py
index 81b8c1a5a..753e98931 100644
--- a/nemo_retriever/src/nemo_retriever/adapters/cli/sdk_workflow.py
+++ b/nemo_retriever/src/nemo_retriever/adapters/cli/sdk_workflow.py
@@ -262,4 +262,6 @@ def query_documents(
         retriever_kwargs["rerank_kwargs"] = rerank_kwargs
 
     retriever = Retriever(**retriever_kwargs)
-    return retriever.query(query)
+    hits = retriever.query(query)
+    hits = [{"text": hit.get("text", ""), "source": hit.get("source", ""), "page_number": hit.get("page_number")} for hit in hits]
+    return hits
diff --git a/nemo_retriever/tests/test_root_cli_workflow.py b/nemo_retriever/tests/test_root_cli_workflow.py
index b55784397..d935a7dde 100644
--- a/nemo_retriever/tests/test_root_cli_workflow.py
+++ b/nemo_retriever/tests/test_root_cli_workflow.py
@@ -330,9 +330,13 @@ def fail_create_ingestor(**_kwargs: Any) -> Any:
 def test_root_query_passes_query_options_and_prints_json(monkeypatch) -> None:
     retriever_calls: list[dict[str, Any]] = []
     query_calls: list[str] = []
-    hits = [
-        {"text": "passage", "page_number": 1, "_distance": 0.2},
-        {"text": "other", "page_number": 2, "_distance": 0.4},
+    raw_hits = [
+        {"text": "passage", "source": "a.pdf", "page_number": 1, "_distance": 0.2},
+        {"text": "other", "source": "b.pdf", "page_number": 2, "_distance": 0.4},
+    ]
+    # query_documents exposes only text / source / page_number (no scores or extra keys).
+    public_hits = [
+        {"text": h["text"], "source": h["source"], "page_number": h["page_number"]} for h in raw_hits
     ]
 
     class FakeRetriever:
@@ -341,7 +345,7 @@ def __init__(self, **kwargs: Any) -> None:
 
         def query(self, query: str) -> list[dict[str, Any]]:
             query_calls.append(query)
-            return hits
+            return raw_hits
 
     monkeypatch.setattr(sdk_workflow, "Retriever", FakeRetriever)