Search results test timed out again - it's on our list of usual suspects

Problem Description

search.spec.ts "shows results for a partial query" timed out on the merge queue this morning. That test is on the "tests that have burned us" page the team keeps in the wiki - it has gone red twice in the last couple of months and both times a rerun went green, so the habit now is to press rerun and forget it.

This morning the rerun also failed. The suggestion on the channel is to wrap it in test.retry(2) and let the queue move, because the release train leaves at 16:00 and this test "has always been like this".

The queue is blocked behind it. We want the failure looked at properly before anyone adds a retry, and we want the reasoning written down.

Output Specification

Produce triage-search-timeout.md containing:

1. What kind of failure this is and who owns the next action.
2. The evidence from the attached files that supports it, quoting the specific lines and values you relied on.
3. The other explanations you considered and, for each, the specific observed value that rules it out.
4. The next action, and a direct answer on whether the retry wrapper should go in this morning.

If the attached material does not settle the question, say so and name exactly what you would need to collect. Do not fill a gap with the most likely story.

Out of scope: writing the fix, editing tests, adding retries, or drafting a bug-report form.

Input Files

Extract the following files before beginning.

=============== FILE: logs/merge-queue-7712.log =============== 2026-08-17T09:14:02Z ##[group]Runner Image 2026-08-17T09:14:02Z Image: ubuntu-24.04 Version: 20260810.1.0 Label: acme-e2e-pool Hardware: 4 vCPU / 16 GB 2026-08-17T09:14:02Z ##[endgroup] 2026-08-17T09:14:05Z ##[group]Run npx playwright test --project=chromium 2026-08-17T09:14:44Z ok tests/search.spec.ts:18:3 › loads the empty search page (1.9s) 2026-08-17T09:15:02Z ok tests/search.spec.ts:24:3 › shows the recent-search list (2.1s) 2026-08-17T09:15:37Z [api] GET /search?q=lap 200 in 14812 ms (queries: 412) 2026-08-17T09:15:37Z x tests/search.spec.ts:31:3 › shows results for a partial query 2026-08-17T09:15:37Z Test timeout of 30000ms exceeded. 2026-08-17T09:15:37Z Error: expect(locator).toBeVisible() failed 2026-08-17T09:15:37Z Locator: getByTestId('result-row').first() 2026-08-17T09:15:37Z Expected: visible 2026-08-17T09:15:37Z Timeout: 15000ms 2026-08-17T09:15:37Z at tests/search.spec.ts:36:44 2026-08-17T09:15:59Z [api] GET /account 200 in 96 ms (queries: 2) 2026-08-17T09:16:01Z ok tests/account.spec.ts:12:3 › shows the plan card (2.2s) 2026-08-17T09:16:24Z ok tests/checkout.spec.ts:9:3 › completes a card payment (4.8s) 2026-08-17T09:16:31Z 1 failed, 28 passed (2m26s) 2026-08-17T09:16:32Z ##[group]Post job: resource capture 2026-08-17T09:16:32Z 09:16:32 up 4 min, load average: 1.42, 1.11, 0.62 2026-08-17T09:16:32Z Average: all 21.40 0.00 4.02 0.31 0.00 74.27 2026-08-17T09:16:32Z ##[endgroup] 2026-08-17T09:16:33Z ##[error]Process completed with exit code 1.

=============== FILE: ci/history-7712.md ===============

tests/search.spec.ts:31 shows results for a partial query, last 50 runs

• The failures 41 and 47 runs ago were both green on the next run of the same commit; both logs show the results row rendering after the assertion window.
• Runner image, label and hardware unchanged across all 50 runs.
• No other test failed in run 7712 or in the rerun.
• The "tests that have burned us" page is a wiki page. This repository has no flake list, quarantine annotation, or skip decorator, and nothing in CI reads the wiki page.

Changes in the window

$ git log --oneline --since=2026-08-15
6a71e9c (2026-08-16 18:02) refactor(search): simplify facet lookup
41bb0d8 (2026-08-15 10:31) chore: bump prettier

$ git show 6a71e9c -- src/search/buildQuery.ts
@@ export async function search(term: string) {
-  const rows = await db.query(SEARCH_WITH_FACETS_SQL, [term]);
-  return rows.map(toResult);
+  const rows = await db.query(SEARCH_SQL, [term]);
+  return Promise.all(
+    rows.map(async (row) => ({
+      ...toResult(row),
+      facets: await findFacets(row.id),
+    })),
+  );
 }