diff --git a/backend/tests/api/routes/test_flows.py b/backend/tests/api/routes/test_flows.py
index c548aa5..5ef9cbc 100644
--- a/backend/tests/api/routes/test_flows.py
+++ b/backend/tests/api/routes/test_flows.py
@@ -507,6 +507,12 @@ async def test_the_live_socket_ends_when_its_client_goes(
     `receive_text` raises for good once the peer has gone, so reading it again
     spun this loop at full tilt: the event loop stalled, `/health` answered
     503 and one queue getter was orphaned per turn.
+
+    It is also what made `fluksio serve` unstoppable. A handler that never
+    returns is an ASGI task uvicorn never sees finish, and its graceful
+    shutdown waits on those with no timeout — so SIGTERM logged "Waiting for
+    background tasks to complete" and nothing else, leaving `serve.pid` behind
+    because only SIGKILL ended the process. This returning is what ends that.
     """
     monkeypatch.setattr(flows_route, "user_from_token", lambda session, token: object())
 
diff --git a/frontend/tests/widgets.spec.ts b/frontend/tests/widgets.spec.ts
index cab717b..a6f5e84 100644
--- a/frontend/tests/widgets.spec.ts
+++ b/frontend/tests/widgets.spec.ts
@@ -312,14 +312,24 @@ test("a bar draws a row per reading", async ({ page }) => {
   await expect(rows).toHaveCount(2)
 
   const fills = page.getByTestId("bar-fill")
-  const outer = await fills.nth(0).boundingBox()
-  const inner = await fills.nth(1).boundingBox()
-  expect(outer).not.toBeNull()
-  expect(inner).not.toBeNull()
-  expect(
-    inner!.width,
-    "the smaller reading is not drawn as the shorter bar",
-  ).toBeLessThan(outer!.width)
+  const width = (index: number) =>
+    fills
+      .nth(index)
+      .boundingBox()
+      .then((box) => box?.width ?? 0)
+  // Both fills spring up from zero once the reading lands, so a single
+  // measurement can be taken before the socket has delivered either — two
+  // widths of nothing, where "shorter" is not true of anything.
+  await expect
+    .poll(
+      async () => {
+        const outer = await width(0)
+        const inner = await width(1)
+        return inner > 0 && inner < outer
+      },
+      { message: "the smaller reading is not drawn as the shorter bar" },
+    )
+    .toBe(true)
 
   // Told apart by colour rather than by nesting, which is what lets a row
   // carry a scale of its own.
@@ -338,16 +348,26 @@ test("a reading over its scale fills the track and no more", async ({
   await publish(page, w("pv"), 120)
   await expect(page.getByText(/120\.00? kW/)).toBeVisible()
 
-  const fill = await page.getByTestId("bar-fill").nth(1).boundingBox()
-  const track = await page
-    .getByTestId("bar-row")
-    .nth(1)
-    .locator(".dui-bar-track")
-    .boundingBox()
-  expect(
-    fill!.width,
-    "a value over the scale runs off the end of its track",
-  ).toBeLessThanOrEqual(track!.width + 1)
+  // `fractionOf` clamps the reading to the scale and the track clips what is
+  // drawn, so nothing past a full track is ever *shown*. The fill element is
+  // sprung there, and the house spring is underdamped — it reaches 100.7% of
+  // the track about 280ms in, clipped and invisible but measurable, because a
+  // bounding box is not clipped by an ancestor's overflow. Where it settles is
+  // what "fills the track and no more" is about, so that is what is measured:
+  // flush with the track, neither short of it nor over.
+  const track = page.getByTestId("bar-row").nth(1).locator(".dui-bar-track")
+  await expect
+    .poll(
+      async () => {
+        const fill = await page.getByTestId("bar-fill").nth(1).boundingBox()
+        const rail = await track.boundingBox()
+        return Math.round(fill!.width - rail!.width)
+      },
+      {
+        message: "a value over the scale does not settle flush with its track",
+      },
+    )
+    .toBe(0)
 
   await publish(page, w("pv"), 30)
 })