diff --git a/crates/atuin-client/src/database.rs b/crates/atuin-client/src/database.rs
index d01dadb4..4f126030 100644
--- a/crates/atuin-client/src/database.rs
+++ b/crates/atuin-client/src/database.rs
@@ -762,6 +762,8 @@ impl Database for Sqlite {
 
 #[cfg(test)]
 mod test {
+    use crate::settings::test_local_timeout;
+
     use super::*;
     use std::time::{Duration, Instant};
 
@@ -834,7 +836,9 @@ mod test {
 
     #[tokio::test(flavor = "multi_thread")]
     async fn test_search_prefix() {
-        let mut db = Sqlite::new("sqlite::memory:", 0.1).await.unwrap();
+        let mut db = Sqlite::new("sqlite::memory:", test_local_timeout())
+            .await
+            .unwrap();
         new_history_item(&mut db, "ls /home/ellie").await.unwrap();
 
         assert_search_eq(&db, SearchMode::Prefix, FilterMode::Global, "ls", 1)
@@ -850,7 +854,9 @@ mod test {
 
     #[tokio::test(flavor = "multi_thread")]
     async fn test_search_fulltext() {
-        let mut db = Sqlite::new("sqlite::memory:", 0.1).await.unwrap();
+        let mut db = Sqlite::new("sqlite::memory:", test_local_timeout())
+            .await
+            .unwrap();
         new_history_item(&mut db, "ls /home/ellie").await.unwrap();
 
         assert_search_eq(&db, SearchMode::FullText, FilterMode::Global, "ls", 1)
@@ -934,7 +940,9 @@ mod test {
 
     #[tokio::test(flavor = "multi_thread")]
     async fn test_search_fuzzy() {
-        let mut db = Sqlite::new("sqlite::memory:", 0.1).await.unwrap();
+        let mut db = Sqlite::new("sqlite::memory:", test_local_timeout())
+            .await
+            .unwrap();
         new_history_item(&mut db, "ls /home/ellie").await.unwrap();
         new_history_item(&mut db, "ls /home/frank").await.unwrap();
         new_history_item(&mut db, "cd /home/Ellie").await.unwrap();
@@ -1035,7 +1043,9 @@ mod test {
 
     #[tokio::test(flavor = "multi_thread")]
     async fn test_search_reordered_fuzzy() {
-        let mut db = Sqlite::new("sqlite::memory:", 0.1).await.unwrap();
+        let mut db = Sqlite::new("sqlite::memory:", test_local_timeout())
+            .await
+            .unwrap();
         // test ordering of results: we should choose the first, even though it happened longer ago.
 
         new_history_item(&mut db, "curl").await.unwrap();
@@ -1069,7 +1079,9 @@ mod test {
             git_root: None,
         };
 
-        let mut db = Sqlite::new("sqlite::memory:", 0.1).await.unwrap();
+        let mut db = Sqlite::new("sqlite::memory:", test_local_timeout())
+            .await
+            .unwrap();
         for _i in 1..10000 {
             new_history_item(&mut db, "i am a duplicated command")
                 .await
diff --git a/crates/atuin-client/src/record/sqlite_store.rs b/crates/atuin-client/src/record/sqlite_store.rs
index 63ef42f8..23130797 100644
--- a/crates/atuin-client/src/record/sqlite_store.rs
+++ b/crates/atuin-client/src/record/sqlite_store.rs
@@ -367,7 +367,7 @@ pub(crate) fn test_sqlite_store_timeout() -> f64 {
     std::env::var("ATUIN_TEST_SQLITE_STORE_TIMEOUT")
         .ok()
         .and_then(|x| x.parse().ok())
-        .unwrap_or(0.1)
+        .unwrap_or(crate::settings::test_local_timeout())
 }
 
 #[cfg(test)]
diff --git a/crates/atuin-client/src/settings.rs b/crates/atuin-client/src/settings.rs
index 64cb4f3a..669b2501 100644
--- a/crates/atuin-client/src/settings.rs
+++ b/crates/atuin-client/src/settings.rs
@@ -845,6 +845,16 @@ impl Default for Settings {
     }
 }
 
+#[cfg(test)]
+pub(crate) fn test_local_timeout() -> f64 {
+    std::env::var("ATUIN_TEST_LOCAL_TIMEOUT")
+        .ok()
+        .and_then(|x| x.parse().ok())
+        // this hardcoded value should be replaced by a simple way to get the
+        // default local_timeout of Settings if possible
+        .unwrap_or(2.0)
+}
+
 #[cfg(test)]
 mod tests {
     use std::str::FromStr;