diff --git a/src/index.ts b/src/index.ts
index e365562..e975767 100755
--- a/src/index.ts
+++ b/src/index.ts
@@ -821,13 +821,14 @@ export class TempestCommand extends EventEmitter<CommandEvents> {
    * GENEROUS per-dispatch wall-clock backstop (ms). If a single task dispatch stays
    * in-flight longer than this, the tick loop force-resolves it as a timeout so
    * pendingOrActive can reach 0 and the mission can advance/complete even when an
-   * operator promise wedges. Deliberately large (default 5 min) so it NEVER kills a
-   * legitimately-slow-but-working LLM task (e.g. opus planning ~165s); it only fires
-   * on truly-hung dispatches. Override via T3MP3ST_TASK_TIMEOUT_MS.
+   * operator promise wedges. Deliberately large (default 5 min for API models,
+   * 30 min for local-agent backends) so it does not kill legitimately slow local
+   * CLI work; it only fires on truly-hung dispatches. Override via
+   * T3MP3ST_TASK_TIMEOUT_MS.
    */
   /**
-   * Resolve the dispatch timeout from the environment, falling back to the 5-minute
-   * default. Guards against a non-numeric / non-positive override.
+   * Resolve the dispatch timeout from the environment, falling back to the
+   * provider-specific default. Guards against a non-numeric / non-positive override.
    */
   private static resolveTaskTimeoutMs(provider?: LLMProvider): number {
     const DEFAULT_TASK_TIMEOUT_MS = 300000; // 5 minutes — generous backstop, not a deadline
@@ -1035,8 +1036,8 @@ export class TempestCommand extends EventEmitter<CommandEvents> {
    * never advances, and completeMission() is never called: the mission HANGS.
    *
    * On every tick we scan the in-flight dispatches and force-resolve any that have
-   * exceeded the GENEROUS wall-clock backstop (taskTimeoutMs, default 5 min), or
-   * that exhibit the exact wedge symptom (owning operator is `executing`/`tasked`
+   * exceeded the GENEROUS wall-clock backstop (taskTimeoutMs), or that exhibit
+   * the exact wedge symptom (owning operator is `executing`/`tasked`
    * but its currentTask is null — i.e. it has silently dropped the task). For each
    * we: (1) mark the task failed/timed-out in the queue, (2) clear its dispatch
    * bookkeeping, and (3) reset the owning operator back to idle so it can take new
diff --git a/src/llm/index.ts b/src/llm/index.ts
index d796e73..0b426f3 100755
--- a/src/llm/index.ts
+++ b/src/llm/index.ts
@@ -1070,7 +1070,8 @@ class LocalAgentAdapter implements LLMProviderAdapter {
   async chat(messages: LLMMessage[], options?: ChatOptions): Promise<LLMResponse> {
     const agentId = this.config.model || 'codex';
     const prompt = this.formatPrompt(messages, options);
-    const content = (await localAgentChat(agentId, prompt, { timeoutMs: this.config.timeout || 240000 })).trim();
+    const timeoutMs = typeof this.config.timeout === 'number' && this.config.timeout > 0 ? this.config.timeout : undefined;
+    const content = (await localAgentChat(agentId, prompt, { timeoutMs })).trim();
     // Tool-calling over text: if the Arsenal was offered, parse the agent's tool requests so the
     // ReAct loop EXECUTES them instead of treating this planning turn as the (abstaining) final answer.
     const toolCalls = options?.tools?.length ? parseTextToolCalls(content) : undefined;
diff --git a/src/server.ts b/src/server.ts
index c6ce004..01b5fb2 100755
--- a/src/server.ts
+++ b/src/server.ts
@@ -6478,6 +6478,18 @@ function providerNeedsApiKey(provider: string): boolean {
   return !['codex', 'mock', 'local', 'local-agent'].includes(provider);
 }
 
+function readPositiveTimeoutEnv(name: string): number | undefined {
+  const raw = process.env[name];
+  if (raw == null || raw.trim() === '') return undefined;
+  const parsed = Number(raw);
+  return Number.isFinite(parsed) && parsed > 0 ? parsed : undefined;
+}
+
+function readGeneralTimeoutEnv(): number | undefined {
+  return readPositiveTimeoutEnv('TEMPEST_GENERAL_TIMEOUT_MS')
+    ?? readPositiveTimeoutEnv('T3MP3ST_GENERAL_TIMEOUT_MS');
+}
+
 // SECURITY NOTE: `apiKey` is accepted from the request BODY here (and in the
 // mission/general routes that call this). Sending secrets in the body is not
 // ideal — an Authorization header is preferred — but the same-origin UI posts
@@ -6501,7 +6513,9 @@ function resolveGeneralLLMConfig(provider: string, model: string | undefined, ap
       model: model || 'codex',
       maxTokens: 8192,
       temperature: 0.4,
-      timeout: Number(process.env.TEMPEST_GENERAL_TIMEOUT_MS) || 300000,
+      timeout: readGeneralTimeoutEnv()
+        ?? readPositiveTimeoutEnv('T3MP3ST_LOCAL_AGENT_TIMEOUT_MS')
+        ?? 600000,
     };
   }
   const baseConfig = config.getLLMConfig(selectedProvider as any, model);
@@ -6515,7 +6529,7 @@ function resolveGeneralLLMConfig(provider: string, model: string | undefined, ap
     apiKey: effectiveKey,
     maxTokens: 8192,
     temperature: 0.4,
-    timeout: Number(process.env.TEMPEST_GENERAL_TIMEOUT_MS) || 300000, // General planning needs room (was a hardcoded 60s); override via env
+    timeout: readGeneralTimeoutEnv() ?? 300000, // General planning needs room (was a hardcoded 60s); override via env
   };
 }