node --test waits forever for a hung test, and --test-timeout alone does not end the run

Fact

--test-timeout defaults to Infinity, so a test awaiting a response that never comes stalls the whole run. Setting a timeout makes that test give up, but its file's process keeps running while a listening server or an open socket holds the event loop, so the run still never finishes. Only a teardown that closes those handles, or --test-force-exit, lets it exit. The summary counts a timed-out test as cancelled, not fail; the exit code is 1 either way.

Why it matters

The hang appears exactly when a bug stops a server from answering. A failure in the code under test becomes a CI job that sits silent until the job's own limit (six hours by default on GitHub Actions). Fault injection and mutation testing hit this constantly.

How to apply

• "test": "node --test --test-timeout=10000 --test-force-exit". Both are flags, not positionals, so this keeps the portable bare-node --test discovery. They need Node 20.14+ (force-exit) and 20.11+ (timeout).
• Bound teardown too: server.close() waits for the hung connection. Call server.closeAllConnections() in after, or force it after a short grace. It does not reach WebSockets: [[close-all-connections-skips-upgraded-sockets]].
• A hang in every test of a file costs the timeout once per test. Keep the timeout close to the slowest real test, not generous.
• When a CI check parses the summary, treat cancelled > 0 as a failure.