diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/pr-checks.yml b/.gitea/workflows/pr-checks.yml
index 61aedcb..052c666 100644
--- a/.gitea/workflows/pr-checks.yml
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/pr-checks.yml
@@ -73,6 +73,15 @@ concurrency:
   group: pr-checks-${{ github.ref }}
   cancel-in-progress: true
 
+# npm's own retry, turned up. The shared runner reads ETIMEDOUT from the registry
+# often enough to matter, and there are five `npm ci` calls across these jobs — a
+# red X that means "the network hiccuped" costs a reviewer more than it costs the
+# runner to retry, and teaches everyone to re-run rather than read a failure.
+env:
+  NPM_CONFIG_FETCH_RETRIES: 5
+  NPM_CONFIG_FETCH_RETRY_MINTIMEOUT: 20000
+  NPM_CONFIG_FETCH_RETRY_MAXTIMEOUT: 120000
+
 jobs:
   server-tests:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest