diff --git a/.github/scripts/install-playwright-fonts.sh b/.github/scripts/install-playwright-fonts.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..ada4fa5537
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/scripts/install-playwright-fonts.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+#
+# Installs Playwright's optional font packages for the `chrome` channel.
+#
+# The GitHub runner ships Chrome as an apt package, so every library Playwright
+# lists is already satisfied by apt itself. The only packages `install-deps` adds
+# are decorative CJK/Thai/Cyrillic fonts (~21MB) that no CI assertion depends on:
+# the one spec that takes screenshots gates the comparison behind
+# `E2E_VISUAL_SNAPSHOTS`, which CI never sets.
+#
+# Ubuntu's mirrors stall often enough that a hard failure here has repeatedly
+# taken down whole e2e runs, so each attempt is capped and a final failure is
+# only a warning. The workflow keeps `continue-on-error: true` as a backstop for
+# the case where the step itself is killed by its timeout.
+
+set -uo pipefail
+
+readonly ATTEMPT_TIMEOUT_SECONDS=70
+readonly MAX_ATTEMPTS=3
+
+for attempt in $(seq 1 "${MAX_ATTEMPTS}"); do
+  if timeout "${ATTEMPT_TIMEOUT_SECONDS}" npx playwright install-deps chrome; then
+    exit 0
+  fi
+  echo "::warning::playwright install-deps attempt ${attempt}/${MAX_ATTEMPTS} failed or timed out"
+  sleep 5
+done
+
+echo "::warning::Optional Playwright font packages were not installed; continuing without them."
+exit 0
diff --git a/.github/workflows/playwright-bombadil.yml b/.github/workflows/playwright-bombadil.yml
index 58d28b9884..064a3141dc 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/playwright-bombadil.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/playwright-bombadil.yml
@@ -119,11 +119,14 @@ jobs:
         if: steps.cache-client-app.outputs.cache-hit != 'true'
         run: npm run build:client
 
-      - name: Install Playwright runtime dependencies
-        timeout-minutes: 5
-        run: |
-          google-chrome --version
-          npx playwright install-deps chrome
+      - name: Verify Chrome is present
+        run: google-chrome --version
+
+      # Optional fonts only — see the note in playwright-mock.yml's e2e_shards job.
+      - name: Install optional Playwright font dependencies (best effort)
+        timeout-minutes: 4
+        continue-on-error: true
+        run: .github/scripts/install-playwright-fonts.sh
 
       - name: Run five-minute Bombadil exploration
         id: bombadil
diff --git a/.github/workflows/playwright-mock.yml b/.github/workflows/playwright-mock.yml
index d764961d0d..3baae0e307 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/playwright-mock.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/playwright-mock.yml
@@ -141,11 +141,18 @@ jobs:
         if: steps.cache-client-app.outputs.cache-hit != 'true'
         run: npm run build:client
 
-      - name: Install Playwright runtime dependencies
-        timeout-minutes: 5
-        run: |
-          google-chrome --version
-          npx playwright install-deps chrome
+      - name: Verify Chrome is present
+        run: google-chrome --version
+
+      # The runner's Chrome is an apt package, so its real library dependencies are
+      # already satisfied; all `install-deps` adds here are optional CJK/Thai/Cyrillic
+      # font packages (~21MB from azure.archive.ubuntu.com). Nothing in CI asserts on
+      # them — visual baselines are opt-in via E2E_VISUAL_SNAPSHOTS — so a stalled
+      # Ubuntu mirror must never be able to fail the suite.
+      - name: Install optional Playwright font dependencies (best effort)
+        timeout-minutes: 4
+        continue-on-error: true
+        run: .github/scripts/install-playwright-fonts.sh
 
       - name: Run full mock-LLM Tier-1 e2e
         if: matrix.suite == 'full'
@@ -225,11 +232,19 @@ jobs:
       - name: Build e2e dependencies
         run: npm run e2e:prepare
 
-      - name: Install Playwright and Redis runtime dependencies
+      - name: Verify Chrome is present
+        run: google-chrome --version
+
+      # Optional fonts only — see the note in the e2e_shards job.
+      - name: Install optional Playwright font dependencies (best effort)
+        timeout-minutes: 4
+        continue-on-error: true
+        run: .github/scripts/install-playwright-fonts.sh
+
+      # Redis is a hard requirement for this job, so this step stays fatal.
+      - name: Install Redis runtime dependencies
         timeout-minutes: 5
         run: |
-          google-chrome --version
-          npx playwright install-deps chrome
           sudo apt-get update
           sudo apt-get install -y redis-server redis-tools