diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 5a5469d..fdd1de3 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,5 +1,12 @@
 # Changelog
 
+## 8.0.4 - 2026-03-26
+
+### Fixed
+
+- Loaders: enforce a hard wall-clock timeout on the Playwright render worker thread (2× browser timeout + 30 s); raises a retryable `LoaderRuntimeError` if Chromium becomes permanently unresponsive (stuck WebSocket, no CDP response).
+- Loaders: render thread is now always a daemon thread so an abandoned timeout does not block process exit.
+
 ## 8.0.3 - 2026-03-26
 
 ### Fixed
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 880e261..1bc280e 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 [tool.poetry]
 name = "wordlift-sdk"
-version = "8.0.3"
+version = "8.0.4"
 description = "Python toolkit for orchestrating WordLift imports and structured data workflows."
 authors = ["David Riccitelli <david@wordlift.io>"]
 readme = "README.md"
diff --git a/tests/ingestion/test_loaders.py b/tests/ingestion/test_loaders.py
index 12edd77..b939b3c 100644
--- a/tests/ingestion/test_loaders.py
+++ b/tests/ingestion/test_loaders.py
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 
 import asyncio
 import threading
+import time
 import urllib.error
 from io import BytesIO
 from types import SimpleNamespace
@@ -207,6 +208,14 @@ async def _run() -> None:
     assert seen_thread_ids[0] != main_thread_id
 
 
+def test_run_in_worker_thread_raises_on_hard_timeout() -> None:
+    with pytest.raises(LoaderRuntimeError) as exc:
+        loaders_module._run_in_worker_thread(lambda: time.sleep(10), timeout=0.05)
+
+    assert exc.value.code == "INGEST_LOAD_BROWSER_TIMEOUT"
+    assert exc.value.retryable is True
+
+
 def test_playwright_loader_wraps_non_runtime_exceptions(
     monkeypatch: pytest.MonkeyPatch,
 ) -> None:
diff --git a/uv.lock b/uv.lock
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9431a63
--- /dev/null
+++ b/uv.lock
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+version = 1
+revision = 3
+requires-python = ">=3.11"
diff --git a/wordlift_sdk/ingestion/loaders.py b/wordlift_sdk/ingestion/loaders.py
index 7c83d6d..8878147 100644
--- a/wordlift_sdk/ingestion/loaders.py
+++ b/wordlift_sdk/ingestion/loaders.py
@@ -261,12 +261,19 @@ def _is_running_in_event_loop() -> bool:
 def _render_with_loop_safety(
     render_fn: Callable[[RenderOptions], Any], options: RenderOptions
 ) -> Any:
-    if not _is_running_in_event_loop():
-        return render_fn(options)
-    return _run_in_worker_thread(lambda: render_fn(options))
-
-
-def _run_in_worker_thread(fn: Callable[[], Any]) -> Any:
+    # Always delegate to a dedicated daemon worker thread so that:
+    # 1. Playwright's greenlet event loop does not run on the calling thread
+    #    (avoids blocking the asyncio executor thread introduced in 8.0.3).
+    # 2. A hard wall-clock timeout can be enforced even when the browser
+    #    subprocess becomes permanently unresponsive (stuck WebSocket, no
+    #    CDP response to page.content() or browser.close(), etc.).
+    hard_timeout = options.timeout_ms / 1000 * 2 + 30
+    return _run_in_worker_thread(lambda: render_fn(options), timeout=hard_timeout)
+
+
+def _run_in_worker_thread(
+    fn: Callable[[], Any], *, timeout: float | None = None
+) -> Any:
     result: dict[str, Any] = {}
     error: dict[str, BaseException] = {}
 
@@ -276,9 +283,20 @@ def target() -> None:
         except BaseException as exc:  # pragma: no cover - asserted via caller paths
             error["exc"] = exc
 
-    thread = threading.Thread(target=target, name="playwright-render-worker")
+    # daemon=True: if this thread is abandoned on timeout it will not block
+    # process exit — Chromium subprocesses it owns are cleaned up by the OS.
+    thread = threading.Thread(
+        target=target, name="playwright-render-worker", daemon=True
+    )
     thread.start()
-    thread.join()
+    thread.join(timeout=timeout)
+
+    if thread.is_alive():
+        raise LoaderRuntimeError(
+            f"Playwright render hard timeout after {timeout:.0f}s for render operation",
+            code="INGEST_LOAD_BROWSER_TIMEOUT",
+            retryable=True,
+        )
 
     exc = error.get("exc")
     if exc is not None: