diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/pipeline.yml b/.gitea/workflows/pipeline.yml
index e99049b..e13a852 100644
--- a/.gitea/workflows/pipeline.yml
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/pipeline.yml
@@ -64,14 +64,16 @@ jobs:
         env:
           MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: root
           MYSQL_DATABASE: wp_tests
-        # First-boot init is slow on the CPU-limited shared runner; GitHub's
-        # 5 x 10s health window was not enough here.
+        # First-boot init took 3.5 min on the CPU-limited shared runner under load
+        # (GitHub's 5 x 10s window is far too short here). Data dir on tmpfs: the
+        # test DB is throwaway and disk I/O dominated the init time.
         options: >-
+          --tmpfs /var/lib/mysql:rw
           --health-cmd="mysqladmin ping"
           --health-interval=10s
           --health-timeout=5s
-          --health-start-period=60s
-          --health-retries=20
+          --health-start-period=120s
+          --health-retries=30
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v4
       - uses: https://git.protopeer.com/peptide-repo/peptide-e2e/.gitea/actions/ci-phpunit@main