diff --git a/server/src/__tests__/retained-native-session-cleanup-work.test.ts b/server/src/__tests__/retained-native-session-cleanup-work.test.ts
index 1f698c7b210..f34bba49fdc 100644
--- a/server/src/__tests__/retained-native-session-cleanup-work.test.ts
+++ b/server/src/__tests__/retained-native-session-cleanup-work.test.ts
@@ -69,12 +69,15 @@ describe("retained native cleanup scheduled lifecycle", () => {
     worker = retainedNativeSessionCleanupWork(db, cleanup).register(coordinator, () => admitted);
     await worker.ready;
   }
-  async function flush() {
+  // `interval` is the real-time gap between polls. Each poll advances fake time
+  // by one second, which admits at most one cleanup pass (batch size 1, one
+  // second minimum pass interval), so a long backlog drains one entry per poll.
+  async function flush(interval = 50) {
     await vi.waitFor(async () => {
       await vi.advanceTimersByTimeAsync(1000);
       expect(idleWorkSnapshot().active).toBe(0);
       expect(coordinator!.nextWakeAt()).toBeNull();
-    }, { timeout: 15_000 });
+    }, { timeout: 15_000, interval });
   }
   async function quiet(ms = 120_000) {
     const previous = db.$client.options.debug;
@@ -614,7 +617,12 @@ describe("retained native cleanup scheduled lifecycle", () => {
   it("drains a backlog across discovery pages and becomes quiet with the completed history retained", async () => {
     const runIds: string[] = [];
     for (let index = 0; index < 103; index++) runIds.push(await candidate());
-    await start(); await flush();
+    // 103 serial passes at the default 50ms poll spend ~4.7s of a ~5s local run
+    // waiting between polls, and contended CI runners pushed it past 15s. A 5ms
+    // poll drains the same passes in under a second; the wake schedule is set
+    // before a pass releases its idle-work hold, so polling faster cannot
+    // observe a false quiet state.
+    await start(); await flush(5);
     expect(cleanup.mock.calls.map(([input]) => input.runId).sort()).toEqual(runIds.sort());
     expect(await db.select().from(nativeRunFinalizations).where(eq(nativeRunFinalizations.companyId, companyId))).toHaveLength(103);
     await quiet();
diff --git a/server/src/adapters/cloud-external-adapters.test.ts b/server/src/adapters/cloud-external-adapters.test.ts
index 21da3bccbeb..637f952c60e 100644
--- a/server/src/adapters/cloud-external-adapters.test.ts
+++ b/server/src/adapters/cloud-external-adapters.test.ts
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 import fs from "node:fs";
 import os from "node:os";
 import path from "node:path";
-import { afterEach, beforeEach, describe, expect, it, vi } from "vitest";
+import { afterEach, beforeAll, beforeEach, describe, expect, it, vi } from "vitest";
 
 let home: string;
 let localPackage: string;
@@ -35,6 +35,29 @@ function writePackage(packageDir: string, type: string): void {
   fs.writeFileSync(path.join(packageDir, "ui-parser.mjs"), parserSource);
 }
 
+// The registry imports every built-in adapter. The first import in a worker
+// pays the one-time transform of that whole graph: about 15s on contended CI
+// runners (the first case timed out at 15s while the next case took 1.1s) and
+// 20-30s on a loaded local machine. Pay it here, not inside the first case's
+// budget. Each case still gets fresh module state from vi.resetModules() below,
+// and its re-import measured 0.4-1.5s. The warm-up uses an empty home and a
+// managed signal, so it reads and runs no persisted adapter package. The 90s
+// limit is three times the slowest measured cold import.
+beforeAll(async () => {
+  const warmHome = fs.mkdtempSync(path.join(os.tmpdir(), "paperclip-cloud-adapters-warm-"));
+  vi.stubEnv("PAPERCLIP_HOME", warmHome);
+  vi.stubEnv("PAPERCLIP_MANAGED_CONFIG", "");
+  try {
+    const registry = await import("./registry.js");
+    await registry.waitForExternalAdapters();
+    await import("./plugin-loader.js");
+    await import("../services/adapter-plugin-store.js");
+  } finally {
+    vi.unstubAllEnvs();
+    fs.rmSync(warmHome, { recursive: true, force: true });
+  }
+}, 90_000);
+
 beforeEach(() => {
   vi.resetModules();
   vi.stubEnv("PAPERCLIP_CLOUD_TENANT_SERVER_TOKEN", undefined);