diff --git a/integration-tests/interactive/cron-interactive.test.ts b/integration-tests/interactive/cron-interactive.test.ts
index 122a732ad62..9f9519dce45 100644
--- a/integration-tests/interactive/cron-interactive.test.ts
+++ b/integration-tests/interactive/cron-interactive.test.ts
@@ -91,15 +91,14 @@ function makeEnv(): NodeJS.ProcessEnv {
     );
 
     await session.idle(5000);
-    await session.send('Reply with exactly USERPRIORITY77 nothing else');
+    const userPriorityMarker = 'USERPRIORITY77';
+    await session.send(`Reply with exactly ${userPriorityMarker} nothing else`);
 
     await session.waitForScreen(
-      (scr) => scr.includes('USERPRIORITY77'),
+      (scr) =>
+        scr.indexOf(userPriorityMarker) !== scr.lastIndexOf(userPriorityMarker),
       'model response containing USERPRIORITY77',
     );
-
-    const screen = await session.screen();
-    expect(screen).toContain('Type your message');
   });
 
   it(
diff --git a/packages/core/src/utils/shellAstParser.test.ts b/packages/core/src/utils/shellAstParser.test.ts
index 8f32755b341..d349cd003a3 100644
--- a/packages/core/src/utils/shellAstParser.test.ts
+++ b/packages/core/src/utils/shellAstParser.test.ts
@@ -510,6 +510,8 @@ describe('isShellCommandReadOnlyAST', () => {
 // =========================================================================
 
 describe('classifyShellCommandSafety', () => {
+  const maxClassificationCpuMs = 1000;
+
   it.each([
     'ls -la',
     'git status --short',
@@ -908,20 +910,23 @@ describe('classifyShellCommandSafety', () => {
     expect(await classifyShellCommandSafety(command)).toBe('unknown');
   });
 
-  it('classifies deeply nested redirected substitutions without repeated traversal', async () => {
+  it('classifies deeply nested redirected substitutions within the CPU budget', async () => {
     const commands = ['git status', 'git status'];
     for (let depth = 0; depth < 20; depth++) {
       commands[0] = `echo $(${commands[0]}) < /dev/null`;
       commands[1] = `< <(${commands[1]}) cat`;
     }
-    const startedAt = performance.now();
+    const startedCpuUsage = process.cpuUsage();
     await expect(
       Promise.all(commands.map(classifyShellCommandSafety)),
     ).resolves.toEqual(['unknown', 'unknown']);
-    expect(performance.now() - startedAt).toBeLessThan(1000);
+    const cpuUsage = process.cpuUsage(startedCpuUsage);
+    expect((cpuUsage.user + cpuUsage.system) / 1000).toBeLessThan(
+      maxClassificationCpuMs,
+    );
   });
 
-  it('classifies adversarial rule inputs in bounded time', async () => {
+  it('classifies adversarial rule inputs within the CPU budget', async () => {
     const backslashes = '\\'.repeat(10_000);
     const repeatedSed = 'p;'.repeat(10_000);
     const repeatedPrint = 'print value; '.repeat(10_000);
@@ -935,7 +940,7 @@ describe('classifyShellCommandSafety', () => {
       `find . ${repeatedFindExec}`,
       `git status ${unmatchedBraces}`,
     ];
-    const startedAt = performance.now();
+    const startedCpuUsage = process.cpuUsage();
     await expect(
       Promise.all(commands.map(classifyShellCommandSafety)),
     ).resolves.toEqual([
@@ -946,7 +951,10 @@ describe('classifyShellCommandSafety', () => {
       'unknown',
       'read-only',
     ]);
-    expect(performance.now() - startedAt).toBeLessThan(1000);
+    const cpuUsage = process.cpuUsage(startedCpuUsage);
+    expect((cpuUsage.user + cpuUsage.system) / 1000).toBeLessThan(
+      maxClassificationCpuMs,
+    );
   });
 });