From f834f9ec5ecf2621e530d8dadaa5061f6ac3728e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Kris Zyp <kriszyp@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 15 Jul 2026 19:39:05 -0600
Subject: [PATCH] fix(startup): scale the idle-silence timeout for CI, matching
 the absolute-max ceiling

DEFAULT_STARTUP_TIMEOUT_MS (the idle/no-output window) was still a flat 60s
regardless of environment, while DEFAULT_STARTUP_MAX_MS (the absolute ceiling)
already scales 120s -> 300s under CI. Under contended CI runners (e.g. several
Harper instances booting concurrently within one sharded test process, each
doing CPU/IO-heavy native module loads), a healthy boot can go quiet for more
than 60s between debug-log lines without actually being hung, tripping the
idle timer well under the (deliberately larger) absolute ceiling.

Apply the same 2.5x ratio already used for DEFAULT_STARTUP_MAX_MS: 60s -> 150s
under CI.
---
 README.md              |  4 ++--
 src/harperLifecycle.ts | 12 ++++++++----
 2 files changed, 10 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 8c60325..750c2d8 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ The Harper binary is resolved in the following order:
 
 ```ts
 interface StartHarperOptions {
-  startupTimeoutMs?: number;   // Idle timeout: max gap between startup output chunks. Default: 60000 or HARPER_INTEGRATION_TEST_STARTUP_TIMEOUT_MS
+  startupTimeoutMs?: number;   // Idle timeout: max gap between startup output chunks. Default: 60000 (150000 under CI) or HARPER_INTEGRATION_TEST_STARTUP_TIMEOUT_MS
   startupMaxMs?: number;       // Absolute startup ceiling regardless of output. Default: 120000 (300000 under CI) or HARPER_INTEGRATION_TEST_STARTUP_MAX_MS
   config?: object;             // Harper config overrides (passed via HARPER_SET_CONFIG)
   env?: object;                // Additional environment variables for the Harper process
@@ -110,7 +110,7 @@ Startup readiness is detected by Harper printing `successfully started`. Rather
 
 **Environment Variables:**
 
-- `HARPER_INTEGRATION_TEST_STARTUP_TIMEOUT_MS` - Idle startup timeout: max time between chunks of startup output before Harper is treated as hung (resets on output). Default `60000`.
+- `HARPER_INTEGRATION_TEST_STARTUP_TIMEOUT_MS` - Idle startup timeout: max time between chunks of startup output before Harper is treated as hung (resets on output). Default `60000` (`150000` under CI).
 - `HARPER_INTEGRATION_TEST_STARTUP_MAX_MS` - Absolute ceiling on total startup time, regardless of ongoing output. Default `120000` (`300000` under CI).
 - `HARPER_INTEGRATION_TEST_INSTALL_PARENT_DIR` - Parent directory for temp Harper install dirs (default: OS tmpdir)
 - `HARPER_INTEGRATION_TEST_INSTALL_SCRIPT` - Path to Harper CLI script
diff --git a/src/harperLifecycle.ts b/src/harperLifecycle.ts
index 23952bd..0fe4ed2 100644
--- a/src/harperLifecycle.ts
+++ b/src/harperLifecycle.ts
@@ -59,11 +59,15 @@ const IS_CI = !!process.env.CI;
  * Maximum time to wait between chunks of Harper startup output before treating the process
  * as hung. The startup watchdog resets this window on every chunk of output, so the limit is
  * time-since-last-progress rather than total boot time: a slow-but-healthy boot that keeps
- * logging never trips it — only true silence does.
+ * logging never trips it — only true silence does. Higher under CI, matching
+ * {@link DEFAULT_STARTUP_MAX_MS}'s CI scaling — shared/contended runners can go quiet between
+ * log lines for longer without actually being hung (e.g. native module load/RocksDB open
+ * competing with sibling concurrently-booting Harper instances for CPU).
  *
- * Override with `HARPER_INTEGRATION_TEST_STARTUP_TIMEOUT_MS`. Default 60s.
+ * Override with `HARPER_INTEGRATION_TEST_STARTUP_TIMEOUT_MS`. Default 60s (150s under CI).
  */
-export const DEFAULT_STARTUP_TIMEOUT_MS = parseInt(process.env.HARPER_INTEGRATION_TEST_STARTUP_TIMEOUT_MS || '', 10) || 60000;
+export const DEFAULT_STARTUP_TIMEOUT_MS =
+	parseInt(process.env.HARPER_INTEGRATION_TEST_STARTUP_TIMEOUT_MS || '', 10) || (IS_CI ? 150000 : 60000);
 
 /**
  * Absolute ceiling on total startup time, regardless of ongoing output — a generous backstop
@@ -117,7 +121,7 @@ export interface StartHarperOptions {
 	/**
 	 * Maximum time (ms) to wait between chunks of startup output before treating Harper as hung.
 	 * Resets on every chunk of output, so it bounds silence, not total boot time.
-	 * Falls back to {@link DEFAULT_STARTUP_TIMEOUT_MS} (60s).
+	 * Falls back to {@link DEFAULT_STARTUP_TIMEOUT_MS} (60s locally, 150s under CI).
 	 */
 	startupTimeoutMs?: number;
 	/**