diff --git a/.github/workflows/_osdc-deploy.yml b/.github/workflows/_osdc-deploy.yml
index 412e9431..1512e81e 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/_osdc-deploy.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/_osdc-deploy.yml
@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ jobs:
     if: ${{ inputs.run_smoke }}
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     environment: ${{ inputs.environment }}
-    timeout-minutes: 30
+    timeout-minutes: 60
     defaults:
       run:
         working-directory: osdc
@@ -129,7 +129,17 @@ jobs:
           aws-region: us-west-1
           role-duration-seconds: 7200
 
+      # Smoke failures are usually transient cluster churn (the cluster needs
+      # time to converge after deploy), so retry once after a settle wait.
       - name: Run smoke tests
+        id: smoke
+        continue-on-error: true
+        run: just smoke "${{ inputs.cluster }}"
+      - name: Wait for cluster to settle before smoke retry
+        if: ${{ steps.smoke.outcome == 'failure' }}
+        run: sleep 180
+      - name: Run smoke tests (retry)
+        if: ${{ steps.smoke.outcome == 'failure' }}
         run: just smoke "${{ inputs.cluster }}"
 
   integration:
diff --git a/osdc/.claude/skills/osdc-deployment/SKILL.md b/osdc/.claude/skills/osdc-deployment/SKILL.md
index 9d6a0651..8efdb200 100644
--- a/osdc/.claude/skills/osdc-deployment/SKILL.md
+++ b/osdc/.claude/skills/osdc-deployment/SKILL.md
@@ -356,4 +356,4 @@ Key workflows (all callable as reusable workflows via `workflow_call` from the o
 
 When adding a new `just` recipe that CI should run, plumb it through the corresponding reusable workflow.
 
-The OSDC-rooted CI jobs — the `deploy`/`smoke`/`integration` jobs in `_osdc-deploy.yml`, plus `osdc-drain.yml` and `osdc-undrain.yml` — set up their toolchain via the local composite action `./.github/actions/osdc-setup` (installs just + mise + `uv sync`). Its setup steps are retried on transient failures by **retry-by-duplication** (`continue-on-error` on the first attempt plus a copy gated on `steps.<id>.outcome == 'failure'`), chosen over a retry action deliberately: GitHub Actions has no native step retry, and a retry action would run unpinnable third-party code on the deploy / merge-queue path. `actions/checkout` and `aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials` are intentionally NOT wrapped because they already retry internally.
+The OSDC-rooted CI jobs — the `deploy`/`smoke`/`integration` jobs in `_osdc-deploy.yml`, plus `osdc-drain.yml` and `osdc-undrain.yml` — set up their toolchain via the local composite action `./.github/actions/osdc-setup` (installs just + mise + `uv sync`). Its setup steps are retried on transient failures by **retry-by-duplication** (`continue-on-error` on the first attempt plus a copy gated on `steps.<id>.outcome == 'failure'`), chosen over a retry action deliberately: GitHub Actions has no native step retry, and a retry action would run unpinnable third-party code on the deploy / merge-queue path. `actions/checkout` and `aws-actions/configure-aws-credentials` are intentionally NOT wrapped because they already retry internally. On the deploy path, the `smoke` step is also retried once by duplication, with a 180s settle wait before the retry, because smoke failures are usually transient post-deploy cluster churn.