diff --git a/.github/workflows/tests.yml b/.github/workflows/tests.yml
index 68af98e..b19185b 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/tests.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/tests.yml
@@ -53,7 +53,13 @@ jobs:
           # Require healthStatus=ok (not just HTTP 200), because /health returns
           # 200 even when the database is degraded — letting smoke tests run too
           # early and fail with SQLSTATE[HY000] [2002] Connection refused.
-          for i in $(seq 1 60); do
+          #
+          # 120s budget: the app container's init does composer install +
+          # ./init.sh + apache startup, which can take 60-90s on a cold GitHub
+          # Actions runner. MySQL is also still finishing its first-boot init at
+          # the start of this window. Don't reduce below ~90s without checking
+          # tail-end runs on actually-slow runners.
+          for i in $(seq 1 120); do
             status=$(curl -fsS http://localhost:8080/health/index 2>/dev/null | jq -r '.Data.healthStatus // "unknown"')
             if [ "$status" = "ok" ]; then
               echo "App became healthy (healthStatus=ok) after ${i}s"
@@ -61,7 +67,7 @@ jobs:
             fi
             sleep 1
           done
-          echo "App did not reach healthStatus=ok within 60s" >&2
+          echo "App did not reach healthStatus=ok within 120s" >&2
           docker compose logs app | tail -100 >&2
           docker compose logs mysql | tail -50 >&2
           exit 1