diff --git a/clients/web/src/components/elements/JsonObjectInput/JsonObjectInput.stories.tsx b/clients/web/src/components/elements/JsonObjectInput/JsonObjectInput.stories.tsx
index 82a6bcc3..d5565f8e 100644
--- a/clients/web/src/components/elements/JsonObjectInput/JsonObjectInput.stories.tsx
+++ b/clients/web/src/components/elements/JsonObjectInput/JsonObjectInput.stories.tsx
@@ -209,9 +209,12 @@ export const AnnotatesTheOffendingLine: Story = {
         await expect(annotations.length).toBeGreaterThan(0);
         await expect(annotations.some((a) => a.type === "error")).toBe(true);
       },
-      // The worker is asynchronous and debounced, so this needs a real wait
-      // rather than a tick.
-      { timeout: 5000 },
+      // The worker is asynchronous, starts out of process and debounces its
+      // result, so this needs a real wait rather than a tick — and a budget
+      // that survives a loaded machine, where 5000ms did not (#2292). It also
+      // has to stay under the storybook project's `testTimeout`, or the test is
+      // killed before the wait can report what it saw.
+      { timeout: 10000 },
     );
   },
 };
diff --git a/clients/web/vite.config.ts b/clients/web/vite.config.ts
index 65311ba6..97034569 100644
--- a/clients/web/vite.config.ts
+++ b/clients/web/vite.config.ts
@@ -375,6 +375,16 @@ export default defineConfig(({ command }) => {
           ],
           test: {
             name: "storybook",
+            // Vitest's default is 5000ms, which is the whole budget a play
+            // function gets — including work that is genuinely slow rather than
+            // racy. `JsonObjectInput`'s "Annotates The Offending Line" waits on
+            // Ace's JSON worker, which starts out of process and debounces its
+            // result; its own `waitFor` asked for 5000ms and so could never win
+            // against the per-test ceiling, and it lost on a loaded machine
+            // (#2292). A larger ceiling does not hide a defect here: a story
+            // that blows 15s has genuinely failed, and every assertion stays as
+            // strict as it was.
+            testTimeout: 15000,
             browser: {
               enabled: true,
               headless: true,