diff --git a/.github/actions/bazel-cache/action.yml b/.github/actions/bazel-cache/action.yml
index 6247e2c9f..1fa3eff6f 100644
--- a/.github/actions/bazel-cache/action.yml
+++ b/.github/actions/bazel-cache/action.yml
@@ -137,10 +137,14 @@ runs:
              # generations wrote would otherwise ride along forever; drop
              # anything untouched for 14 days (tar preserves mtimes across
              # the actions/cache round trip, so age survives restores).
-             # Covers the repo download/contents cache too — bazel's own
-             # contents-cache GC only runs on idle servers, which short-lived
-             # CI invocations never have.
-             find "$HOME/.cache/omp-bazel-disk" "$HOME/.cache/omp-bazel-repo" -type f -mtime +14 -delete 2>/dev/null || true
+             # DISK CACHE ONLY: never prune omp-bazel-repo file-by-file —
+             # extracted repo contents keep upstream-archive mtimes (often
+             # months old), so an mtime sweep guts contents-cache entries
+             # while bazel still trusts their recorded_inputs, materializing
+             # hollow external repos ("BUILD file not found" — v17.2.0
+             # release run 30519253683). The repo cache is bounded by the
+             # GitHub cache TTL/LRU at the archive level instead.
+             find "$HOME/.cache/omp-bazel-disk" -type f -mtime +14 -delete 2>/dev/null || true
              {
                echo "common --config=ci"
                echo "common --disk_cache=$HOME/.cache/omp-bazel-disk"
diff --git a/packages/utils/test/logger-contract.test.ts b/packages/utils/test/logger-contract.test.ts
index e714d1f5b..f6f0a7b93 100644
--- a/packages/utils/test/logger-contract.test.ts
+++ b/packages/utils/test/logger-contract.test.ts
@@ -248,22 +248,30 @@ describe("central logger transport lifecycle", () => {
 		expect(payload).toEqual({ reconfigureThrew: true, sinkCount: 1, sinkSameContext: true });
 	});
 
-	test("preserves burst order and drains on close and natural child exit", async () => {
-		for (const scenario of ["burst-close", "burst-natural"] as const) {
-			const result = await runScenario(scenario);
-			expect(result.stdout).toBe("");
-			expect(result.stderr).toBe("");
-			const text = (await readSingleLog(result.primaryDir)).text;
-			expect(text.endsWith(os.EOL)).toBe(true);
-			const lines = text.split(os.EOL);
-			expect(lines.pop()).toBe("");
-			expect(lines).toHaveLength(1_000);
-			for (const [index, line] of lines.entries()) {
-				const entry = JSON.parse(line) as { message: string; index: number };
-				expect(entry).toMatchObject({ message: scenario, index });
+	// Two sequential probe children writing 1000 records each measure ~4.4 s
+	// on an unloaded runner — bun's 5 s default test timeout SIGTERMed the
+	// probe (exit 143) whenever CI runners shared cores. The contract is
+	// order + drain, not latency; give it an explicit budget.
+	test(
+		"preserves burst order and drains on close and natural child exit",
+		async () => {
+			for (const scenario of ["burst-close", "burst-natural"] as const) {
+				const result = await runScenario(scenario);
+				expect(result.stdout).toBe("");
+				expect(result.stderr).toBe("");
+				const text = (await readSingleLog(result.primaryDir)).text;
+				expect(text.endsWith(os.EOL)).toBe(true);
+				const lines = text.split(os.EOL);
+				expect(lines.pop()).toBe("");
+				expect(lines).toHaveLength(1_000);
+				for (const [index, line] of lines.entries()) {
+					const entry = JSON.parse(line) as { message: string; index: number };
+					expect(entry).toMatchObject({ message: scenario, index });
+				}
 			}
-		}
-	});
+		},
+		30_000,
+	);
 
 	test("runs local console output before sinks and isolates throwing or disposed sinks", async () => {
 		const result = await runScenario("sink-order");