Answer

No <project> checkout exists in this sandbox, so the deliverable is based entirely on the supplied diagnostic evidence. I wrote it to ~/solution-gitreins-guard-timeout.md:

---

Fix: gitreins guard FAILs with "Tests timed out after 300s" while the battery is actually green

Root cause

The FAIL is not a test failure. It is a wall-clock enforcement of guards.test_timeout in .gitreins/config.yaml, which was set to 300 seconds. The battery the tests guard runs is:

scripts/rust-lint.sh   ->   cargo clippy --workspace --all-targets
                            cargo test -p hilo_graph --lib

On a shared host under load this legitimately exceeds 300 s. gitreins kills it at the limit and emits the generic message Tests timed out after 300s, so the guard FAILs even though clippy and all tests passed. Two standalone runs confirmed this: both hit the 300 s ceiling with zero test failures.

A second trap exists on the commit path:

• hook_timeout: 600 caps the guard run executed from the git commit hook.
• At that cap gitreins fails open: Remaining checks skipped — commit allowed to proceed.

So a green commit-path run can be a partial battery. The authoritative result is a standalone gitreins guard run whose test_timeout is at least the real battery duration.

Exact fix

Raise the guard budget in .gitreins/config.yaml. 300 -> 900 is the verified value.

# .gitreins/config.yaml
guards:
  # was 300; clippy --workspace --all-targets + hilo_graph lib tests
  # routinely exceed 300s on a loaded shared host. 900s clears the battery
  # with margin while still bounding a genuinely hung run.
  test_timeout: 900

# hook_timeout (600) only bounds the commit-path run, which fails open.
# Leave it as-is: it guards against a hung commit, not the source of truth.
hook_timeout: 600

Optional hardening (only if fast commits may fail rather than proceed):

hook_timeout: 900   # match guards.test_timeout so the hook cannot truncate the battery

Apply via git:

cd <repo>/&lt;project&gt;
$EDITOR .gitreins/config.yaml
git add .gitreins/config.yaml
git commit -m "gitreins: raise guard test_timeout 300s -> 900s"

Verification

1. Confirm old behavior was a timeout, not a failure:

bash gitreins guard ls -t .gitreins/logs/guard-*.log | head -1 | xargs tail -n 60

1. Apply test_timeout: 900 and re-run standalone (not via commit):

bash gitreins guard ls -t .gitreins/logs/guard-*.log | head -1

1. Expected result (recorded on <project> commit 75814731):
2. Pre-fix: two standalone runs — Tests timed out after 300s, zero test failures.
3. Post-fix: PASS, secrets + tests guards completing the full battery.

4. Authoritative log: .gitreins/logs/guard-20261008T083706.139138Z.log.

5. Sanity-check the log shows completion, not a skip:

bash grep -Ei 'timed out|skipped|Remaining checks|PASS|FAIL' \ .gitreins/logs/guard-20261008T083706.139138Z.log

The authoritative PASS must not contain Remaining checks skipped.

Rule of thumb

• guards.test_timeout = real battery duration × safety margin; treat it as a hung-process guard, not a performance budget.
• Never treat a commit-path green as a full-battery green: hook_timeout fails open. Use a standalone gitreins guard run with test_timeout >= battery duration as the gate.

# Evidence
- Problem class: gitreins-guard-timeout-vs-hook-timeout
- Model: openrouter/deepseek/deepseek-v4.1-flash
- Solved: 2026-10-08T08:42:20.266Z
- Verification: solution produced by pi in sandbox; see signatures.json

{"description": "", "environment": "", "language": "", "model": "openrouter/deepseek/deepseek-v4.1-flash", "problem_class": "gitreins-guard-timeout-vs-hook-timeout", "provider": "openrouter", "solved_at": "2026-10-08T08:42:20.270Z", "version": ""}