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/src/components/screens/SkillsScreen/SkillsScreen.stories.tsx b/clients/web/src/components/screens/SkillsScreen/SkillsScreen.stories.tsx
index bfe69899..da17cf50 100644
--- a/clients/web/src/components/screens/SkillsScreen/SkillsScreen.stories.tsx
+++ b/clients/web/src/components/screens/SkillsScreen/SkillsScreen.stories.tsx
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 import { useState } from "react";
 import type { ComponentProps } from "react";
 import type { Meta, StoryObj } from "@storybook/react-vite";
-import { expect, fn, userEvent, within } from "storybook/test";
+import { expect, fn, userEvent, waitFor, within } from "storybook/test";
 import type { SkillEntry } from "@inspector/core/mcp/skillsSchemas";
 import { SkillsScreen } from "./SkillsScreen";
 import type { SkillsUiState } from "./SkillsScreen";
@@ -428,9 +428,22 @@ export const LongSkillDocument: Story = {
       detailCard.clientHeight + 1,
     );
 
-    // Collapse then reopen restores the same geometry.
+    // Collapse then reopen restores the same geometry. There is no panel
+    // animation to wait out — the accordion sets `transitionDuration={0}`
+    // because a height animation fights its flex sizing — but the reopen is
+    // still not settled when the click resolves: `userEvent.click` returns once
+    // the event is dispatched, ahead of React committing the `openSections`
+    // update, remounting the panel's content, and the browser running the
+    // layout pass that redistributes height across the flex sections. Sampling
+    // once lands mid-redistribution under load and fails intermittently
+    // (#2278), so read the geometry under `waitFor` and let it retry until the
+    // panes stop moving. The reopened layout only ever converges ON `before`
+    // rather than passing through it, so retrying cannot mask a real
+    // regression.
     await userEvent.click(viewerControl);
     await userEvent.click(viewerControl);
-    await expect(geometry()).toEqual(before);
+    await waitFor(async () => {
+      await expect(geometry()).toEqual(before);
+    });
   },
 };
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,