diff --git a/.github/workflows/smoke.yml b/.github/workflows/smoke.yml
index 001b7ecf..e680aaea 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/smoke.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/smoke.yml
@@ -29,6 +29,10 @@ env:
 jobs:
   smoke:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    # Safety net: the whole smoke job is minutes of work. Cap it so a hung tier
+    # (e.g. a daemon left running under a bare `wait`) fails fast instead of
+    # burning the default 6h runner budget.
+    timeout-minutes: 20
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v6
 
diff --git a/test/smoke/lib.sh b/test/smoke/lib.sh
index e3848442..82367206 100755
--- a/test/smoke/lib.sh
+++ b/test/smoke/lib.sh
@@ -194,5 +194,12 @@ smoke::assert_clean_exit() {
 smoke::stop() {
     kill "$WAYBAR_PID" 2>/dev/null || true
     swaymsg -q exit 2>/dev/null || kill "$COMP_PID" 2>/dev/null || true
-    wait 2>/dev/null || true
+    # Wait only on the processes we own. A bare `wait` reaps *every* background
+    # job of the caller's shell, so a tier that leaves an unrelated daemon
+    # running (state.sh's mpd, killed later in its own cleanup) would deadlock
+    # here until GitHub's 6h job timeout.
+    local p
+    for p in "$WAYBAR_PID" "$COMP_PID"; do
+        [ -n "$p" ] && wait "$p" 2>/dev/null || true
+    done
 }
diff --git a/test/smoke/state.sh b/test/smoke/state.sh
index 77fb31e2..697347f5 100755
--- a/test/smoke/state.sh
+++ b/test/smoke/state.sh
@@ -20,9 +20,11 @@ MPD_PID=""
 PA_STARTED=""
 
 cleanup() {
-    smoke::stop
+    # Tear our daemons down first: smoke::stop waits on the compositor/waybar,
+    # and a still-running mpd/pulseaudio must not be left for anything to block on.
     [ -n "$MPD_PID" ] && kill "$MPD_PID" 2>/dev/null || true
     [ -n "$PA_STARTED" ] && pulseaudio --kill 2>/dev/null || true
+    smoke::stop
     return 0
 }