diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index 45067daac..220944a65 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -10,6 +10,9 @@ concurrency:
   group: ${{ github.workflow }}-${{ github.head_ref || github.run_id }}
   cancel-in-progress: true
 
+# Every job normally finishes in under two minutes. The timeout-minutes caps
+# stop a hung job, such as a stalled download, from running until GitHub's
+# six-hour default timeout.
 jobs:
   build:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
@@ -62,13 +65,7 @@ jobs:
 
   test:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
-    # Every job normally finishes in under two minutes. The caps stop a hung job
-    # from running until GitHub's six-hour default timeout, which has happened
-    # here when the Ubuntu package mirror that `playwright install --with-deps`
-    # downloads from stalled. This job's cap is higher than the others because
-    # a slow-but-working mirror can take around 10 minutes, and that should
-    # still pass rather than fail.
-    timeout-minutes: 15
+    timeout-minutes: 10
     steps:
       - name: Checkout
         uses: actions/checkout@v7.0.1
@@ -82,10 +79,14 @@ jobs:
       # Chromium is not in the npm install: Playwright downloads browsers
       # separately. We deliberately do NOT cache them, per Playwright's own CI
       # guidance (https://playwright.dev/docs/ci) — restoring the cache costs
-      # about as much as downloading, and the system libraries Chromium needs
-      # are not cacheable, so `--with-deps` still spends 12-18s on a cache hit.
+      # about as much as downloading.
+      #
+      # We skip `--with-deps`. The ubuntu-latest image ships Google Chrome, so
+      # the system libraries Chromium needs are already installed. The flag
+      # would add ~25 MB of fonts from Ubuntu's package mirror, which sometimes
+      # slows to a crawl and has stretched this step from seconds to 10+ minutes.
       - name: Install Playwright Chromium
-        run: npx playwright install --with-deps chromium
+        run: npx playwright install chromium
       - name: Run Preprocess
         run: npm run preprocess
       - name: Run Build (necessary for including css file in tests)