From c659ff0fd03e9aa12853dab5f353200d4aceb136 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Zachary Lowden <zachlowden1@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 11 Jun 2026 15:14:11 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] test(preview): raise heavy-SSR/whatIf timeouts so slow
 windows flake not fail (#2480)
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On a contended preview node the single-replica pod gets CPU-throttled and the
heaviest flows intermittently crossed their timeout ceilings and HARD-failed
(both attempts), instead of flaking-and-recovering on retry:
 - /user/membership, /models SSR goto: observed ~66s, just past the 60s test +
   nav timeout.
 - generation whatIf waitForResponse: pushed past 25s (page+hydrate+form+resource
   +orchestrator chain) under load.

Raise per-test + navigationTimeout 60s -> 90s, and the whatIf waitForResponse
25s -> 45s. These are margins for slow windows, not masks for real breaks: the
orchestrator is ~57ms and /generate SSR ~0.4s when healthy, so a healthy run
never approaches these. Removes the hard-fail mode that made the report-only
smoke comment show ❌ on clean PRs — a prerequisite for ever flipping smoke to
gating.

Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
---
 playwright.preview.config.ts     | 12 ++++++++----
 tests/preview-generation.spec.ts |  7 ++++++-
 2 files changed, 14 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/playwright.preview.config.ts b/playwright.preview.config.ts
index 780e15ff0a..f577d563a2 100644
--- a/playwright.preview.config.ts
+++ b/playwright.preview.config.ts
@@ -37,16 +37,20 @@ export default defineConfig({
   // and opens DB pools. The default 30s per-test timeout is too tight for that cold
   // first hit, so raise both the per-test and navigation timeouts. The setup project
   // also fires a warm-up request before the suite (preview-auth.setup.ts).
-  timeout: 60_000,
+  // 90s (was 60s): on a contended preview node the single-replica pod gets CPU-
+  // throttled and the heaviest SSR pages (/user/membership, /models) intermittently
+  // crossed the 60s ceiling (observed ~66s) — a slow window should flake-and-recover
+  // on retry, not hard-fail. 90s gives comfortable margin without masking a real hang.
+  timeout: 90_000,
   reporter: [['list'], ['html', { open: 'never', outputFolder: 'playwright-report' }]],
   use: {
     baseURL: PREVIEW_URL,
     trace: 'on-first-retry',
     screenshot: 'only-on-failure',
     // Align with the per-test timeout: a cold heavy-page (/models) goto can need
-    // most of the budget, and a 45s nav cap would fail it even though the test has
-    // 60s. The setup project also pre-warms /models + /images authenticated.
-    navigationTimeout: 60_000,
+    // most of the budget, and a tighter nav cap would fail it even though the test
+    // has 90s. The setup project also pre-warms /models + /images authenticated.
+    navigationTimeout: 90_000,
   },
   projects: [
     { name: 'preview-setup', testMatch: /(^|\/)preview-auth\.setup\.ts$/ },
diff --git a/tests/preview-generation.spec.ts b/tests/preview-generation.spec.ts
index 8fa07fab21..d8ed77a6b4 100644
--- a/tests/preview-generation.spec.ts
+++ b/tests/preview-generation.spec.ts
@@ -46,9 +46,14 @@ test.describe('generation cost quote (gold)', () => {
   // 1. Primary, network-based: whatIf fires on /generate load and quotes a cost.
   test('whatIfFromGraph fires on /generate and returns a numeric cost', async ({ page }) => {
     // Arm the response listener BEFORE navigating so an on-load fire isn't missed.
+    // 45s (was 25s): whatIf is the heaviest client-side flow — page load + hydrate +
+    // form init + resource resolve + orchestrator round-trip must all complete before
+    // it fires. On a CPU-throttled preview pod a slow window pushed this past 25s and
+    // it hard-failed (both attempts). 45s lets a slow window flake-and-recover; the
+    // orchestrator itself is fast (~57ms), so this never approaches 45s when healthy.
     const whatIfResponse = page.waitForResponse(
       (r) => r.url().includes(WHATIF_URL) && r.status() === 200,
-      { timeout: 25_000 }
+      { timeout: 45_000 }
     );
 
     const resp = await page.goto('/generate', { waitUntil: 'domcontentloaded' });