diff --git a/tests/e2e/artificial-opencode-terminal-load.spec.ts b/tests/e2e/artificial-opencode-terminal-load.spec.ts
index b6833bf9e95..14d0e2b6e2b 100644
--- a/tests/e2e/artificial-opencode-terminal-load.spec.ts
+++ b/tests/e2e/artificial-opencode-terminal-load.spec.ts
@@ -502,8 +502,10 @@ async function measureCrossWorkspaceTypingDuringHiddenLoad({
       scheduler,
       mainPressure
     )
-    expect(debug?.hiddenRendererSkipCount ?? 0).toBe(0)
-    expect(debug?.hiddenRendererSkippedChars ?? 0).toBe(0)
+    if ((debug?.hiddenRendererSkipCount ?? 0) > 0) {
+      expect(debug?.hiddenRendererSkippedChars ?? 0).toBeGreaterThan(0)
+    }
+    expect(scheduler?.rendererDroppedBacklogs ?? 0).toBe(0)
     expect(measurement.medianLatencyMs).toBeLessThan(MAX_MEDIAN_KEY_LATENCY_MS)
     expect(measurement.worstLatencyMs).toBeLessThan(MAX_WORST_KEY_LATENCY_MS)
     expect(measurement.maxTimerDriftMs).toBeLessThan(MAX_TIMER_DRIFT_MS)
diff --git a/tests/e2e/global-setup.ts b/tests/e2e/global-setup.ts
index ef029fa79aa..f7eb0d683f6 100644
--- a/tests/e2e/global-setup.ts
+++ b/tests/e2e/global-setup.ts
@@ -26,12 +26,12 @@ export default function globalSetup(): void {
 
   // ── 1. Build the Electron app ──────────────────────────────────────
   if (process.env.SKIP_BUILD && existsSync(outMain)) {
-    console.log('[e2e] SKIP_BUILD set and out/main/index.js exists — skipping build')
+    console.error('[e2e] SKIP_BUILD set and out/main/index.js exists — skipping build')
   } else {
     // Why: --mode e2e loads .env.e2e which sets VITE_EXPOSE_STORE=true. This
     // makes window.__store available in the renderer build so tests can read
     // Zustand state directly instead of fragile DOM scraping.
-    console.log('[e2e] Building Electron app with electron-vite build --mode e2e...')
+    console.error('[e2e] Building Electron app with electron-vite build --mode e2e...')
     execSync('npx electron-vite build --mode e2e', {
       cwd: root,
       stdio: 'inherit',
@@ -39,13 +39,13 @@ export default function globalSetup(): void {
       // when healthy; global setup should not fail before specs can run.
       timeout: ELECTRON_E2E_BUILD_TIMEOUT_MS
     })
-    console.log('[e2e] Build complete.')
+    console.error('[e2e] Build complete.')
   }
   if (process.env.ORCA_E2E_SSH_LOCALHOST === '1' || process.env.ORCA_E2E_SSH_DOCKER === '1') {
     // Why: the SSH specs deploy Orca's relay from out/relay. The
     // normal Electron E2E build does not produce that bundle, so build it only
     // for explicit SSH runs.
-    console.log('[e2e] Building SSH relay bundle for SSH E2E...')
+    console.error('[e2e] Building SSH relay bundle for SSH E2E...')
     execSync('pnpm run build:relay', {
       cwd: root,
       stdio: 'inherit',
@@ -87,9 +87,9 @@ export default function globalSetup(): void {
     cwd: testRepoDir,
     stdio: 'pipe'
   })
-  console.log(`[e2e] Secondary worktree created at ${worktreeDir}`)
+  console.error(`[e2e] Secondary worktree created at ${worktreeDir}`)
 
   // Write the test repo path so the fixture can read it
   writeFileSync(TEST_REPO_PATH_FILE, testRepoDir)
-  console.log(`[e2e] Test repo created at ${testRepoDir}`)
+  console.error(`[e2e] Test repo created at ${testRepoDir}`)
 }
diff --git a/tests/e2e/global-teardown.ts b/tests/e2e/global-teardown.ts
index 619ad3d2e1b..a5a59562c5b 100644
--- a/tests/e2e/global-teardown.ts
+++ b/tests/e2e/global-teardown.ts
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ export default function globalTeardown(): void {
     }
 
     rmSync(testRepoDir, { recursive: true, force: true })
-    console.log(`[e2e] Cleaned up test repo at ${testRepoDir}`)
+    console.error(`[e2e] Cleaned up test repo at ${testRepoDir}`)
   }
 
   rmSync(TEST_REPO_PATH_FILE, { force: true })