diff --git a/packages/mosaic/framework/tools/lease-broker/activation_version_gate.py b/packages/mosaic/framework/tools/lease-broker/activation_version_gate.py
index b1d151b2..e49f633e 100644
--- a/packages/mosaic/framework/tools/lease-broker/activation_version_gate.py
+++ b/packages/mosaic/framework/tools/lease-broker/activation_version_gate.py
@@ -62,7 +62,20 @@ EXPECTED_ACTIVATION_CAPABILITY: Final[ActivationCapability] = {
 # capability as compact JSON.
 LEASE_CAPABILITY_PROBE_COMMAND: Final = "__lease-capability"
 
-PROBE_TIMEOUT_SECONDS: Final = 2.0
+# Running the probe boots the whole Node CLI; it does not merely exec a binary.
+# Measured: 3.0-3.7 s on an idle 4-core VM and 3.55-3.61 s on web1, against
+# `node -e 0` at 0.05 s. The former 2.0 s budget therefore expired on every
+# call on both hosts. Because the probe is fail-closed, an expiry is
+# indistinguishable from "no capability", so every seat launch was denied with
+# a version-skew message that no upgrade could fix. Sized well above the
+# measured range: the gate still fails closed, it just no longer fails closed
+# on a stopwatch.
+PROBE_TIMEOUT_SECONDS: Final = 20.0
+
+# Override hook: seconds to wait for the probe, for hosts slow or loaded enough
+# that even the default is tight. Non-numeric or non-positive values are
+# ignored in favour of the default rather than disabling the bound.
+PROBE_TIMEOUT_OVERRIDE_VAR: Final = "MOSAIC_LEASE_VERSION_PROBE_TIMEOUT_SECONDS"
 
 # Override hook: a full shell-style command line (parsed with `shlex.split`)
 # to run INSTEAD of resolving `mosaic` on PATH and appending the probe
@@ -83,12 +96,28 @@ class VersionCouplingError(Exception):
     silent pass, and never let its absence be treated as compatible."""
 
 
+def _resolve_probe_timeout(environ: Mapping[str, str]) -> float:
+    raw = environ.get(PROBE_TIMEOUT_OVERRIDE_VAR)
+    if not raw:
+        return PROBE_TIMEOUT_SECONDS
+    try:
+        seconds = float(raw)
+    except ValueError:
+        return PROBE_TIMEOUT_SECONDS
+    if seconds <= 0 or seconds != seconds or seconds == float("inf"):
+        return PROBE_TIMEOUT_SECONDS
+    return seconds
+
+
 def _resolve_probe_command(environ: Mapping[str, str]) -> list[str] | None:
     override = environ.get(MOSAIC_COMMAND_OVERRIDE_VAR)
     if override:
         parsed = shlex.split(override)
         return parsed or None
-    resolved = shutil.which("mosaic")
+    # Resolve against the caller's PATH, not the ambient process one. The
+    # function is handed an `environ` and honoured it only for the override
+    # var, so a caller passing an explicit PATH was silently ignored here.
+    resolved = shutil.which("mosaic", path=environ.get("PATH"))
     if resolved is None:
         return None
     return [resolved, LEASE_CAPABILITY_PROBE_COMMAND]
@@ -116,7 +145,7 @@ def default_probe_activation_capability(
             command,
             capture_output=True,
             text=True,
-            timeout=PROBE_TIMEOUT_SECONDS,
+            timeout=_resolve_probe_timeout(source_environment),
             check=False,
         )
     except (OSError, subprocess.TimeoutExpired, ValueError):
diff --git a/packages/mosaic/src/mutator-gate/version_coupling_unittest.py b/packages/mosaic/src/mutator-gate/version_coupling_unittest.py
index 6151170e..a3e88190 100644
--- a/packages/mosaic/src/mutator-gate/version_coupling_unittest.py
+++ b/packages/mosaic/src/mutator-gate/version_coupling_unittest.py
@@ -187,6 +187,43 @@ class ProbeActivationCapabilityTest(unittest.TestCase):
                 )
                 self.assertIsNone(result)
 
+    def test_probe_budget_exceeds_real_cli_boot_time(self) -> None:
+        # Regression: the budget was 2.0 s while the probe boots the whole Node
+        # CLI, measured at 3.0-3.7 s on an idle VM and 3.55-3.61 s on web1. The
+        # gate is fail-closed, so an expiry is indistinguishable from "no
+        # capability" and every seat launch was denied with a version-skew
+        # message no upgrade could fix. Guards the ordering, not a stopwatch.
+        self.assertGreater(VERSION_GATE.PROBE_TIMEOUT_SECONDS, 10.0)
+
+    def test_probe_timeout_override_is_honoured_and_rejects_unusable_values(self) -> None:
+        self.assertEqual(VERSION_GATE._resolve_probe_timeout({}), VERSION_GATE.PROBE_TIMEOUT_SECONDS)
+        self.assertEqual(
+            VERSION_GATE._resolve_probe_timeout(
+                {VERSION_GATE.PROBE_TIMEOUT_OVERRIDE_VAR: "45"}
+            ),
+            45.0,
+        )
+        # An unusable override must fall back to the default rather than
+        # removing the bound: no override may make the gate wait forever.
+        for unusable in ("", "abc", "0", "-5", "nan", "inf"):
+            with self.subTest(value=unusable):
+                self.assertEqual(
+                    VERSION_GATE._resolve_probe_timeout(
+                        {VERSION_GATE.PROBE_TIMEOUT_OVERRIDE_VAR: unusable}
+                    ),
+                    VERSION_GATE.PROBE_TIMEOUT_SECONDS,
+                )
+
+    def test_command_resolution_honours_the_supplied_path(self) -> None:
+        # Regression: `shutil.which` was called without `path=`, so it read the
+        # ambient process PATH and silently ignored the environ handed in. On a
+        # host with `mosaic` installed that made the not-resolvable case pass
+        # only because the 2.0 s budget expired first — right answer, wrong
+        # reason, and it masked the timeout defect above.
+        self.assertIsNone(
+            VERSION_GATE._resolve_probe_command({"PATH": "/nonexistent-bin-dir-for-869-c4-test"})
+        )
+
 
 class LaunchRuntimeVersionCouplingSeamTest(unittest.TestCase):
     """End-to-end (still fully faked) coverage of the seam as wired into