diff --git a/packages/server/test/federation-by-home-id.test.ts b/packages/server/test/federation-by-home-id.test.ts
index a608371d..0629cd2a 100644
--- a/packages/server/test/federation-by-home-id.test.ts
+++ b/packages/server/test/federation-by-home-id.test.ts
@@ -1,9 +1,14 @@
-import { describe, it, expect, beforeAll, afterAll } from 'vitest';
+import { describe, it, expect, beforeAll, afterAll, vi } from 'vitest';
 import { bootTwoInstances, type TwoInstanceHarness } from './helpers/twoInstanceHarness.js';
 import { peerInstances } from './helpers/seedPeer.js';
 import { registerLocal } from './helpers/testUsers.js';
 import { buildHeadersForOrigin } from './helpers/hmacSign.js';
 
+// Boots real federated instances and drives S2S over HTTP; the 5s unit-test
+// default is too tight under CI load. See federation-identity-deletion.test.ts
+// for the rationale. A genuine hang still trips this ceiling.
+vi.setConfig({ testTimeout: 30_000 });
+
 let harness: TwoInstanceHarness;
 let sharedSecret: string;
 
diff --git a/packages/server/test/federation-handshake-desync.test.ts b/packages/server/test/federation-handshake-desync.test.ts
index eca3eea3..9ba4f5ca 100644
--- a/packages/server/test/federation-handshake-desync.test.ts
+++ b/packages/server/test/federation-handshake-desync.test.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import { describe, it, expect, afterEach } from 'vitest';
+import { describe, it, expect, afterEach, vi } from 'vitest';
 import {
   bootTwoInstancesForHandshake,
   registerAdmin,
@@ -11,6 +11,12 @@ import {
 import type { TwoInstanceHarness } from './helpers/twoInstanceHarness.js';
 import { openInspector } from './helpers/dbInspect.js';
 
+// Boots real federated instances and drives the peering handshake over HTTP; the
+// 5s unit-test default is too tight under CI load. See
+// federation-identity-deletion.test.ts for the rationale. A genuine hang still
+// trips this ceiling.
+vi.setConfig({ testTimeout: 30_000 });
+
 /**
  * Acceptance-gate integration suite for the federation handshake desync bugs.
  *
diff --git a/packages/server/test/federation-identity-deletion.test.ts b/packages/server/test/federation-identity-deletion.test.ts
index 2868ed3a..416508f2 100644
--- a/packages/server/test/federation-identity-deletion.test.ts
+++ b/packages/server/test/federation-identity-deletion.test.ts
@@ -1,9 +1,17 @@
-import { describe, it, expect, beforeAll, afterAll } from 'vitest';
+import { describe, it, expect, beforeAll, afterAll, vi } from 'vitest';
 import { bootTwoInstances, bootHomePlusRemotes, type TwoInstanceHarness, type MultiRemoteHarness, type SpawnedInstance } from './helpers/twoInstanceHarness.js';
 import { peerInstances } from './helpers/seedPeer.js';
 import type { TestUser } from './helpers/testUsers.js';
 import { connectWs } from './helpers/wsListener.js';
 
+// Every test here boots real federated instances and drives S2S over HTTP, and
+// several deliberately wait on log matchers (e.g. logMatched(..., 1_000) per
+// remote). The 5s default per-test timeout is meant for unit tests and is too
+// tight for this — under CI load the multi-remote fan-out tests intermittently
+// timed out. Give the whole file a realistic ceiling; a genuine hang still trips
+// it well before then. Hooks keep their own explicit timeouts (beforeAll 90s).
+vi.setConfig({ testTimeout: 30_000 });
+
 let harness: TwoInstanceHarness;
 let sharedHmacSecret: string;