diff --git a/cmd/mesh-controller/build_source.go b/cmd/mesh-controller/build_source.go
index dc940c98..11a4ef4a 100644
--- a/cmd/mesh-controller/build_source.go
+++ b/cmd/mesh-controller/build_source.go
@@ -172,10 +172,10 @@ type waitOut struct {
 // forgeWait is the registration's wait for the forge (novox/hq issue 486). On 2026-10-11 a build's registration
 // asked the forge while node-tools on the control-node re-served after a rollout of the tool runner, heard
 // "nothing serves gitea.gitea_api", and failed its plan; the forge answered again seconds later. A re-serve takes
-// seconds, so 90 s waits one out with room to spare, and stays short because the registration holds the
-// controller's receive loop while it waits. The pauses are those the build machine waits the registry with
-// (novox/hq issue 457).
-var forgeWait = waitOut{bound: 90 * time.Second, first: time.Second, most: 10 * time.Second,
+// about 10 s, so 60 s waits one out with room to spare. It is a cap on the whole wait, an ask in flight included:
+// the registration holds the controller's one receive loop while it waits, and a loop held two minutes reads as
+// deaf. The pauses are those the build machine waits the registry with (novox/hq issue 457).
+var forgeWait = waitOut{bound: 60 * time.Second, first: time.Second, most: 10 * time.Second,
 	now: time.Now, sleep: sleepOrDone}
 
 // sleepOrDone pauses for d, or less when ctx ends first.
@@ -190,37 +190,53 @@ func sleepOrDone(ctx context.Context, d time.Duration) error {
 	}
 }
 
-// forgeNotNow is an answer that says the forge's tool is not there now, not that the forge refused: nothing
-// serves it (the tool runner re-serving), or it did not answer within the wait. Anything else — a refusal, an
-// unreadable answer, a repository with no id — is the forge's word, and is never asked again.
-func forgeNotNow(err error) bool {
-	return errors.Is(err, link.ErrNothingServes) || errors.Is(err, link.ErrNoAnswer)
-}
+// forgeNotNow is an answer that says the forge's tool is not served now — the tool runner re-serving — not that
+// the forge refused. Only that is asked again: a refusal, an unreadable answer or a repository with no id is the
+// forge's word, and a tool that did not answer in time has already held the receive loop its whole wait.
+func forgeNotNow(err error) bool { return errors.Is(err, link.ErrNothingServes) }
 
-// forgeWaitedOut asks the forge about repository, asking again within w's bound while it answers "not now"
-// (novox/hq issue 486). Past the bound it fails, saying it waited, for how long, and what the forge last said.
+// forgeWaitedOut asks the forge about repository, asking again while it answers "not served now", all of it
+// within w's bound, an ask in flight included (novox/hq issue 486). Past the bound it fails, saying it waited,
+// for how long, and what the forge last said; when the caller's own context ends, it says that instead.
 func forgeWaitedOut(ctx context.Context, w waitOut, repository string,
 	ask func(context.Context) (forgeFacts, error)) (forgeFacts, error) {
+	capped, cancel := context.WithTimeout(ctx, w.bound)
+	defer cancel()
 	began := w.now()
 	pause := w.first
 	for asked := 1; ; asked++ {
-		facts, err := ask(ctx)
-		if err == nil || !forgeNotNow(err) || ctx.Err() != nil {
-			if err == nil && asked > 1 {
+		facts, err := ask(capped)
+		if err == nil {
+			if asked > 1 {
 				fmt.Printf("the forge answered about %s again, after %s (novox/hq issue 486)\n", repository,
 					w.now().Sub(began).Round(time.Second))
 			}
-			return facts, err
+			return facts, nil
 		}
-		waited := w.now().Sub(began)
-		if waited+pause > w.bound {
+		if ctx.Err() != nil {
+			return forgeFacts{}, err // the caller's own context ended: no wait of ours to speak of
+		}
+		gaveUp := func() (forgeFacts, error) {
 			return forgeFacts{}, fmt.Errorf("waited %s for the forge to answer about %s, asking %d times, and it "+
-				"did not (novox/hq issue 486): %w", waited.Round(time.Second), repository, asked, err)
+				"did not (novox/hq issue 486): %w", w.now().Sub(began).Round(time.Second), repository, asked, err)
+		}
+		if capped.Err() != nil {
+			return gaveUp() // the bound ended an ask in flight
+		}
+		if !forgeNotNow(err) {
+			return forgeFacts{}, err
+		}
+		if w.now().Sub(began)+pause > w.bound {
+			return gaveUp()
 		}
 		fmt.Printf("the forge cannot be asked about %s now (%v); asking again in %s, for at most %s in all "+
 			"(novox/hq issue 486)\n", repository, err, pause, w.bound)
-		if err := w.sleep(ctx, pause); err != nil {
-			return forgeFacts{}, fmt.Errorf("stopped waiting for the forge to answer about %s: %w", repository, err)
+		if serr := w.sleep(capped, pause); serr != nil {
+			if ctx.Err() != nil {
+				return forgeFacts{}, fmt.Errorf("stopped waiting for the forge to answer about %s: %w", repository,
+					ctx.Err())
+			}
+			return gaveUp()
 		}
 		pause = min(2*pause, w.most)
 	}
diff --git a/cmd/mesh-controller/forge_wait_test.go b/cmd/mesh-controller/forge_wait_test.go
index 3b977fed..8216e91c 100644
--- a/cmd/mesh-controller/forge_wait_test.go
+++ b/cmd/mesh-controller/forge_wait_test.go
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ func notServed() error {
 // A registration's forge question that lands while the tool runner re-serves is asked again, and the forge's
 // answer, seconds later, is the registration's (novox/hq issue 486).
 func TestTheForgeNotServedForAMomentIsWaitedOut(t *testing.T) {
-	w, paused := aFakeWait(90 * time.Second)
+	w, paused := aFakeWait(60 * time.Second)
 	asked := 0
 	facts, err := forgeWaitedOut(t.Context(), w, "novox/mesh-catalog", func(context.Context) (forgeFacts, error) {
 		asked++
@@ -52,25 +52,50 @@ func TestTheForgeNotServedForAMomentIsWaitedOut(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
-// A tool that did not answer within its wait is waited out the same way: nothing refused.
-func TestTheForgeNotAnsweringInTimeIsAskedAgain(t *testing.T) {
-	w, _ := aFakeWait(90 * time.Second)
+// A tool that did not answer within its wait has held the receive loop that long already: not asked again.
+func TestTheForgeNotAnsweringInTimeIsNotAskedAgain(t *testing.T) {
+	w, paused := aFakeWait(60 * time.Second)
 	asked := 0
 	_, err := forgeWaitedOut(t.Context(), w, "novox/x", func(context.Context) (forgeFacts, error) {
 		asked++
-		if asked == 1 {
-			return forgeFacts{}, fmt.Errorf("gitea did not answer: %w", link.ErrNoAnswer)
-		}
-		return forgeFacts{ID: 1, Guarded: true}, nil
+		return forgeFacts{}, fmt.Errorf("gitea did not answer: %w", link.ErrNoAnswer)
 	})
-	if err != nil || asked != 2 {
-		t.Fatalf("asked %d times: %v", asked, err)
+	if !errors.Is(err, link.ErrNoAnswer) || asked != 1 || len(*paused) != 0 {
+		t.Fatalf("a forge that did not answer in time was asked %d times, paused %v: %v", asked, *paused, err)
+	}
+}
+
+// An ask that hangs past the bound is cut off at the bound, not at its own wait, and the failure still says it
+// waited: the receive loop is held no longer than the bound (novox/hq issue 486).
+func TestAnAskHangingPastTheBoundIsCutOffAtIt(t *testing.T) {
+	w := waitOut{bound: 200 * time.Millisecond, first: 10 * time.Millisecond, most: 50 * time.Millisecond,
+		now: time.Now, sleep: sleepOrDone}
+	asked := 0
+	began := time.Now()
+	_, err := forgeWaitedOut(t.Context(), w, "novox/mesh-catalog", func(ctx context.Context) (forgeFacts, error) {
+		asked++
+		if asked == 1 {
+			return forgeFacts{}, notServed()
+		}
+		select { // link.Ask's own wait is 30 s; the bound must end it first
+		case <-ctx.Done():
+			return forgeFacts{}, fmt.Errorf("gitea did not answer: %w", link.ErrNoAnswer)
+		case <-time.After(30 * time.Second):
+			return forgeFacts{ID: 1, Guarded: true}, nil
+		}
+	})
+	if took := time.Since(began); took > 2*time.Second {
+		t.Fatalf("the wait took %s, past its bound of %s", took, w.bound)
+	}
+	if err == nil || !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "waited") || !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "asking 2 times") ||
+		!strings.Contains(err.Error(), "issue 486") {
+		t.Fatalf("the bound's end does not say it waited: %v", err)
 	}
 }
 
 // Past the bound the registration fails, saying it waited, for how long, and what the forge last said.
 func TestTheForgeNotServedPastTheBoundFailsSayingItWaited(t *testing.T) {
-	w, paused := aFakeWait(90 * time.Second)
+	w, paused := aFakeWait(60 * time.Second)
 	_, err := forgeWaitedOut(t.Context(), w, "novox/mesh-catalog", func(context.Context) (forgeFacts, error) {
 		return forgeFacts{}, notServed()
 	})
@@ -81,8 +106,8 @@ func TestTheForgeNotServedPastTheBoundFailsSayingItWaited(t *testing.T) {
 	for _, p := range *paused {
 		waited += p
 	}
-	if waited > 90*time.Second || waited < 60*time.Second {
-		t.Fatalf("waited %s in all, want close to and within the bound of 90s", waited)
+	if waited > 60*time.Second || waited < 40*time.Second {
+		t.Fatalf("waited %s in all, want close to and within the bound of 60s", waited)
 	}
 	for _, want := range []string{"waited " + waited.String(), "novox/mesh-catalog", "nothing serves", "issue 486"} {
 		if !strings.Contains(err.Error(), want) {
@@ -96,7 +121,7 @@ func TestTheForgeNotServedPastTheBoundFailsSayingItWaited(t *testing.T) {
 
 // A refusal is the forge's word: never asked again.
 func TestARefusalFromTheForgeIsNeverAskedAgain(t *testing.T) {
-	w, paused := aFakeWait(90 * time.Second)
+	w, paused := aFakeWait(60 * time.Second)
 	asked := 0
 	_, err := forgeWaitedOut(t.Context(), w, "novox/x", func(context.Context) (forgeFacts, error) {
 		asked++
@@ -109,7 +134,7 @@ func TestARefusalFromTheForgeIsNeverAskedAgain(t *testing.T) {
 
 // A registration whose own context ends stops waiting at once.
 func TestAWaitForTheForgeEndsWithItsContext(t *testing.T) {
-	w, _ := aFakeWait(90 * time.Second)
+	w, _ := aFakeWait(60 * time.Second)
 	ctx, cancel := context.WithCancel(t.Context())
 	w.sleep = func(ctx context.Context, d time.Duration) error { cancel(); return sleepOrDone(ctx, d) }
 	asked := 0