diff --git a/swarm-controller/src/forge.rs b/swarm-controller/src/forge.rs
index 925b5ec5..94d6d4b6 100644
--- a/swarm-controller/src/forge.rs
+++ b/swarm-controller/src/forge.rs
@@ -1563,8 +1563,23 @@ impl Client {
     ///
     /// Returns the first failure. A listing failure is not fatal — it falls
     /// through to the create attempt, which is idempotent server-side by way
-    /// of the already-exists fold.
+    /// of the already-exists fold. A forge that does not answer within
+    /// [`FORGE_DEADLINE`] is a failure too.
     pub async fn ensure_swarm_webhooks(&self, public_base: &str, secret: &str) -> Result<()> {
+        within_forge_deadline(
+            "register swarm webhooks",
+            self.ensure_all_swarm_hooks(public_base, secret),
+        )
+        .await
+        .unwrap_or_else(|| {
+            anyhow::bail!(
+                "the forge did not answer within {}s",
+                FORGE_DEADLINE.as_secs()
+            )
+        })
+    }
+
+    async fn ensure_all_swarm_hooks(&self, public_base: &str, secret: &str) -> Result<()> {
         for kind in DeliveryKind::ALL {
             let target_url = kind.target_url(public_base);
             let (event, scope) = match kind {
@@ -2078,6 +2093,28 @@ mod tests {
         assert_eq!(within_forge_deadline("test", async { 7 }).await, Some(7));
     }
 
+    /// A forge that accepts the connection and never answers fails the
+    /// registration at the deadline, so the caller's retry advances. The
+    /// paused clock jumps to the deadline once nothing else can run.
+    #[tokio::test(start_paused = true)]
+    async fn swarm_webhook_registration_fails_at_the_deadline_when_the_forge_never_answers() {
+        // Bound but never accepted: the handshake completes, no response comes.
+        let listener = tokio::net::TcpListener::bind("127.0.0.1:0").await.unwrap();
+        let url = url::Url::parse(&format!("http://{}/", listener.local_addr().unwrap())).unwrap();
+        let client = Client::for_test_forge(url);
+        let start = tokio::time::Instant::now();
+        // The outer bound turns a missing deadline into a failure, not a hang.
+        let err = tokio::time::timeout(
+            FORGE_DEADLINE * 2,
+            client.ensure_swarm_webhooks("https://swarm.example", "s3cret"),
+        )
+        .await
+        .expect("registration returns by itself")
+        .expect_err("no answer is a failure");
+        assert_eq!(start.elapsed(), FORGE_DEADLINE);
+        assert!(format!("{err:#}").contains("did not answer"), "{err:#}");
+    }
+
     #[tokio::test]
     async fn page_search_results_pages_past_a_full_first_page() {
         #[derive(Clone)]