diff --git a/test/integration/mesh.test.ts b/test/integration/mesh.test.ts
index 07d604d..645c007 100644
--- a/test/integration/mesh.test.ts
+++ b/test/integration/mesh.test.ts
@@ -939,20 +939,24 @@ test("a route is a grant: a workload is reached by the name it asked for", {
   // fails more visibly than a stale grant, so it must not survive the module leaving.
   await mesh("unassign laptop storefront");
   await mesh("push");
-  await new Promise((r) => setTimeout(r, 20_000));
 
-  // The provider has to have applied before the file means anything. **The mesh withdrawing a
-  // route and the machine acting on it are different things**, and a test that reads the file
-  // without checking the second reports the first wrongly whenever the machine is behind for any
-  // unrelated reason.
-  const applied = await mesh("status");
-  assert.doesNotMatch(applied, /anchor\s+(failed|refused)/,
-    `the provider did not apply, so what its file says is not what the mesh decided:\n${applied}`);
-
-  const after = await must("anchor", `cat /etc/frontdoor/routes.json`);
-  assert.doesNotMatch(after, /shop\.mesh\.test/,
+  // **Waited for, not slept through.** The mesh withdrawing a route and the machine acting on it
+  // are different things, and a fixed sleep between them tests whichever the clock happened to
+  // land on — this assertion passed twice and failed once on nothing but timing.
+  //
+  // A machine that has not applied yet is also not a machine that failed, so `status` cannot
+  // stand in for this: "not yet" and "never" look identical there, and only one of them is worth
+  // failing over.
+  let after = "";
+  let withdrawn = false;
+  for (let i = 0; i < 20 && !withdrawn; i++) {
+    after = await must("anchor", `cat /etc/frontdoor/routes.json`);
+    withdrawn = !after.includes("shop.mesh.test");
+    if (!withdrawn) await new Promise((r) => setTimeout(r, 3000));
+  }
+  assert.ok(withdrawn,
     `the route outlived the module that asked for it:\n${after}\n\n` +
-    `what the mesh would send now:\n` +
+    `the machine did apply — this is what the mesh would send now:\n` +
     `${(await on("anchor", `docker exec mesh-control /mesh-control plan anchor --files`)).out}`);
 
   let gone = false;