diff --git a/internal/api/agent.go b/internal/api/agent.go
index 0480fb6..3eaee6d 100644
--- a/internal/api/agent.go
+++ b/internal/api/agent.go
@@ -117,7 +117,11 @@ func (h *handlers) agentChat(c *gin.Context) {
 // stream's mutex with it, and taking the keep-alive down too since it needs the
 // same lock. Generous, because it is a backstop against a stuck peer and not a
 // pacing mechanism.
-const sseWriteTimeout = 30 * time.Second
+//
+// A var, not a const, ONLY so the test can shrink it to prove the deadline is
+// refreshed per frame rather than set once — a set-once 30s deadline would pass
+// a test whose whole run is under a second. Production never reassigns it.
+var sseWriteTimeout = 30 * time.Second
 
 // eventStream serializes writes to one SSE response.
 //
diff --git a/internal/api/sse_deadline_test.go b/internal/api/sse_deadline_test.go
index 61a7f24..181bf51 100644
--- a/internal/api/sse_deadline_test.go
+++ b/internal/api/sse_deadline_test.go
@@ -10,28 +10,13 @@ import (
 	"github.com/gin-gonic/gin"
 )
 
-// TestEventStreamOutlivesWriteTimeout is the regression test for #78.
-//
-// http.Server.WriteTimeout is an ABSOLUTE deadline measured from when the
-// request header was read — not an idle timeout — so a streaming response is cut
-// once it passes, however recently the handler wrote. pansy sets it to 30s while
-// an agent turn may run for minutes.
-//
-// This has to be driven through a real http.Server and asserted from the CLIENT
-// side, because the failure cannot be observed from the handler: writes made
-// after the deadline return err == nil and their bytes are silently discarded.
-// A test that checked the return of io.WriteString would pass against the bug.
-func TestEventStreamOutlivesWriteTimeout(t *testing.T) {
-	// tick > writeTimeout on purpose, so EVERY frame lands after the deadline has
-	// already passed and the first one clears it by a full 100ms. The margin only
-	// ever grows: a slow or loaded CI runner delays frames further past a deadline
-	// that has already expired, so scheduling jitter pushes this test toward
-	// passing rather than toward flaking. Sizing it the other way — frames landing
-	// just before the deadline — would flake exactly when CI is busiest.
-	const writeTimeout = 200 * time.Millisecond
-	const tick = 300 * time.Millisecond
-	const frames = 3 // ~900ms total; the last lands 700ms past the deadline
-
+// streamFrames spins up a real http.Server with the given WriteTimeout and an
+// SSE handler that emits `frames` data frames, one every `tick`, then returns.
+// It reports how many frames the client actually received and any read error —
+// the only vantage point from which the deadline failures in #78/#87 are
+// visible, since the writes themselves return nil when the bytes are dropped.
+func streamFrames(t *testing.T, serverWriteTimeout, tick time.Duration, frames int) (int, error) {
+	t.Helper()
 	gin.SetMode(gin.TestMode)
 	r := gin.New()
 	r.GET("/stream", func(c *gin.Context) {
@@ -43,7 +28,7 @@ func TestEventStreamOutlivesWriteTimeout(t *testing.T) {
 	})
 
 	srv := httptest.NewUnstartedServer(r)
-	srv.Config.WriteTimeout = writeTimeout
+	srv.Config.WriteTimeout = serverWriteTimeout
 	srv.Start()
 	defer srv.Close()
 
@@ -60,12 +45,57 @@ func TestEventStreamOutlivesWriteTimeout(t *testing.T) {
 			got++
 		}
 	}
-	// Read errors are the symptom, not an aside: against the bug the client gets
-	// an unexpected EOF partway through. Report it rather than only the count.
-	if err := sc.Err(); err != nil {
-		t.Errorf("client read error after %d/%d frames: %v", got, frames, err)
+	return got, sc.Err()
+}
+
+// TestEventStreamOutlivesServerWriteTimeout is the regression test for #78.
+//
+// http.Server.WriteTimeout is an ABSOLUTE deadline measured from when the
+// request header was read — not an idle timeout — so a streaming response is cut
+// once it passes, however recently the handler wrote. pansy sets it to 30s while
+// an agent turn may run for minutes. openEventStream must override it.
+//
+// This has to be asserted from the CLIENT side because the failure cannot be
+// observed from the handler: writes made after the deadline return err == nil
+// and their bytes are silently discarded. A test that checked the return of
+// io.WriteString would pass against the bug.
+func TestEventStreamOutlivesServerWriteTimeout(t *testing.T) {
+	// sseWriteTimeout stays at its 30s default here, so the per-frame refresh
+	// keeps the stream alive with a huge margin — CI slowness only ever makes
+	// this pass more surely. The server's 300ms WriteTimeout is the thing being
+	// overridden; frames straddle it (300ms/600ms/900ms).
+	got, err := streamFrames(t, 300*time.Millisecond, 300*time.Millisecond, 3)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Errorf("client read error after %d/3 frames: %v", got, err)
 	}
-	if got != frames {
-		t.Errorf("client received %d frames, want %d — the stream was cut at WriteTimeout", got, frames)
+	if got != 3 {
+		t.Errorf("client received %d frames, want 3 — the stream was cut at the server WriteTimeout", got)
+	}
+}
+
+// TestEventStreamRefreshesDeadlinePerFrame guards the #87 fix specifically: the
+// write deadline is refreshed on EVERY frame, not set once.
+//
+// A set-once deadline is a plausible "simplification" and it reintroduces the
+// unbounded-block risk the per-frame refresh exists to prevent — yet it would
+// sail through the test above, whose whole run is far under sseWriteTimeout. So
+// shrink sseWriteTimeout below the stream's total duration and send frames whose
+// gap stays comfortably under it: per-frame refresh delivers them all, while a
+// deadline set once at open would expire mid-stream and cut it short.
+func TestEventStreamRefreshesDeadlinePerFrame(t *testing.T) {
+	orig := sseWriteTimeout
+	sseWriteTimeout = 400 * time.Millisecond
+	t.Cleanup(func() { sseWriteTimeout = orig })
+
+	// The server WriteTimeout is generous (5s), so it isn't the limiter — the
+	// per-frame sseWriteTimeout is. 8 frames at a 100ms tick span 800ms, well past
+	// the 400ms deadline, but each 100ms gap is a 4× margin under it.
+	got, err := streamFrames(t, 5*time.Second, 100*time.Millisecond, 8)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Errorf("client read error after %d/8 frames: %v", got, err)
+	}
+	if got != 8 {
+		t.Errorf("client received %d frames, want 8 — a set-once deadline would cut the stream at ~%v; the refresh must be per-frame",
+			got, sseWriteTimeout)
 	}
 }