diff --git a/src/Controller/ArticleController.php b/src/Controller/ArticleController.php
index aee5399..780e8fb 100644
--- a/src/Controller/ArticleController.php
+++ b/src/Controller/ArticleController.php
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 namespace App\Controller;
 
 use App\Entity\Article;
+use App\Http\PhpExecutionTime;
 use App\Repository\ArticleRepository;
 use App\Service\ArticleBodyHtmlRenderer;
 use App\Enum\KindsEnum;
@@ -35,10 +36,11 @@ class ArticleController  extends AbstractController
     #[Route('/fragment/comments', name: 'article_comments_fragment', methods: ['GET'])]
     public function commentsFragment(Request $request, ArticleCommentThreadLoader $loader, LoggerInterface $logger): Response
     {
-        // {@see NostrClient::getArticleDiscussion} runs per-relay work in parallel CLI workers; allow headroom
-        // for all processes + Symfony (45s was too low and caused an uncatchable max-execution fatal → HTTP 500).
-        @set_time_limit(300);
-        @ini_set('max_execution_time', '300');
+        // {@see NostrClient::getArticleDiscussion} uses parallel CLI workers; cap below multi-minute defaults
+        // so Apache event MPM scoreboard slots are not held unnecessarily (see {@see PhpExecutionTime}).
+        $t = PhpExecutionTime::NOSTR_BOUND_WEB_SEC;
+        @set_time_limit($t);
+        @ini_set('max_execution_time', (string) $t);
 
         $t0 = microtime(true);
         $coordinate = $request->query->getString('coordinate');
@@ -365,8 +367,9 @@ class ArticleController  extends AbstractController
         ArticleBodyHtmlRenderer $articleBodyHtmlRenderer,
         NostrKeyHelper $nostrKeyHelper,
     ): Response {
-        set_time_limit(300); // 5 minutes
-        ini_set('max_execution_time', '300');
+        $t = PhpExecutionTime::NOSTR_BOUND_WEB_SEC;
+        set_time_limit($t);
+        ini_set('max_execution_time', (string) $t);
 
         $html = $articleBodyHtmlRenderer->renderForArticle($article);
 
@@ -601,8 +604,9 @@ class ArticleController  extends AbstractController
     #[Route('/articles', name: 'articles')]
     public function latestArticles(Request $request, EntityManagerInterface $entityManager): Response
     {
-        set_time_limit(300); // 5 minutes
-        ini_set('max_execution_time', '300');
+        $t = PhpExecutionTime::LIGHT_WEB_SEC;
+        set_time_limit($t);
+        ini_set('max_execution_time', (string) $t);
 
         $perPage = 25;
         $page = max(1, $request->query->getInt('page', 1));
diff --git a/src/Controller/AuthorController.php b/src/Controller/AuthorController.php
index 8e2a5f3..1785784 100644
--- a/src/Controller/AuthorController.php
+++ b/src/Controller/AuthorController.php
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ declare(strict_types=1);
 
 namespace App\Controller;
 
+use App\Http\PhpExecutionTime;
 use App\Repository\ArticleRepository;
 use App\Repository\FeaturedAuthorRepository;
 use App\Service\CacheService;
@@ -36,10 +37,9 @@ class AuthorController extends AbstractController
         ProfileIdentityLinksBuilder $profileIdentityLinks,
         NostrKeyHelper $nostrKeyHelper,
     ): Response {
-        // Profile pages chain several sequential Nostr REQ runs; match article pages so a slow relay
-        // set does not hit PHP’s default 30s max_execution_time during Twig render.
-        @set_time_limit(300);
-        @ini_set('max_execution_time', '300');
+        // Profile pages chain several sequential Nostr REQ runs; cap wall time so Apache workers are not held for minutes.
+        @set_time_limit(PhpExecutionTime::NOSTR_BOUND_WEB_SEC);
+        @ini_set('max_execution_time', (string) PhpExecutionTime::NOSTR_BOUND_WEB_SEC);
 
         $pubkey = $nostrKeyHelper->convertToHex($npub);
 
diff --git a/src/Http/PhpExecutionTime.php b/src/Http/PhpExecutionTime.php
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..43bae04
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/Http/PhpExecutionTime.php
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+<?php
+
+declare(strict_types=1);
+
+namespace App\Http;
+
+/**
+ * Web request caps for max_execution_time. High values tie up Apache event MPM scoreboard slots
+ * (and similar) for minutes per client; keep limits aligned with real Nostr + worker wall time.
+ */
+final class PhpExecutionTime
+{
+    /** Article page, comments fragment, author profile (Nostr + parallel workers + Twig). */
+    public const NOSTR_BOUND_WEB_SEC = 120;
+
+    /** DB + Twig listing routes without relay fan-out. */
+    public const LIGHT_WEB_SEC = 60;
+}
diff --git a/src/Service/ArticleCommentThreadLoader.php b/src/Service/ArticleCommentThreadLoader.php
index dcdb351..5c33e76 100644
--- a/src/Service/ArticleCommentThreadLoader.php
+++ b/src/Service/ArticleCommentThreadLoader.php
@@ -22,6 +22,9 @@ use Symfony\Contracts\Cache\ItemInterface;
 final readonly class ArticleCommentThreadLoader
 {
     private const PARENT_REPLY_TEXT_PREVIEW_MAX = 200;
+
+    /** Partial thread cache: long enough to avoid relay-storm on flaky relays; prewarm still fills full TTL. */
+    private const PARTIAL_THREAD_CACHE_TTL_SEC = 300;
     /** PSR-6 pool backing {@see $cache}; used for true cache-only reads (SSR) without invoking Nostr. */
     public function __construct(
         private NostrClient $nostrClient,
@@ -101,8 +104,8 @@ final readonly class ArticleCommentThreadLoader
                 // On failure, let this throw: Symfony cache will not store a value, so a prior good thread is not replaced by [].
                 $out = $this->nostrClient->getArticleDiscussion($coordinate, $articleEventHexId);
                 $partial = (bool) ($out['partial'] ?? false);
-                // Partial relay snapshots are intentionally short-lived so the next request can pick up late relays.
-                $item->expiresAfter($partial ? 15 : 86400);
+                // Partial: bounded TTL so late relays can still appear without re-fetching every few seconds.
+                $item->expiresAfter($partial ? self::PARTIAL_THREAD_CACHE_TTL_SEC : 86400);
                 $this->logger->info('comments.loader.nostr_ok', [
                     'nostr_elapsed_ms' => (int) round((microtime(true) - $tNostr) * 1000),
                     'thread' => \count($out['thread'] ?? []),
diff --git a/src/Service/Nip05VerificationService.php b/src/Service/Nip05VerificationService.php
index c38adb1..4e71651 100644
--- a/src/Service/Nip05VerificationService.php
+++ b/src/Service/Nip05VerificationService.php
@@ -16,7 +16,10 @@ final readonly class Nip05VerificationService
 {
     private const CACHE_PREFIX = 'nip05v1_';
 
-    private const FETCH_TIMEOUT_SEC = 8;
+    private const FETCH_TIMEOUT_SEC = 5;
+
+    /** Avoid sequential cold HTTP to many domains on one page tying up a worker. */
+    private const MAX_COLD_VERIFICATIONS_PER_ENRICH = 5;
 
     public function __construct(
         private CacheItemPoolInterface $appCache,
@@ -42,6 +45,7 @@ final readonly class Nip05VerificationService
             }, $rows);
         }
         $out = [];
+        $coldDone = 0;
         foreach ($rows as $r) {
             $label = (string) ($r['label'] ?? '');
             $n = $this->normalizeNip05($label);
@@ -56,12 +60,21 @@ final readonly class Nip05VerificationService
                 $item = $this->appCache->getItem($k);
                 if ($item->isHit() && \is_bool($item->get())) {
                     $verified = (bool) $item->get();
+                } elseif ($coldDone >= self::MAX_COLD_VERIFICATIONS_PER_ENRICH) {
+                    $this->logger->info('nip05.verify_cold_skipped_budget', ['label' => $label]);
+                    $verified = false;
                 } else {
+                    ++$coldDone;
                     // Cold cache: verify now so the profile shows ✓ without a prior prewarm run.
                     $verified = $this->verifyAndCache($h, $label);
                 }
             } catch (InvalidArgumentException) {
-                $verified = $this->verifyAndCache($h, $label);
+                if ($coldDone >= self::MAX_COLD_VERIFICATIONS_PER_ENRICH) {
+                    $verified = false;
+                } else {
+                    ++$coldDone;
+                    $verified = $this->verifyAndCache($h, $label);
+                }
             }
             $out[] = [...$r, 'verified' => $verified];
         }
diff --git a/src/Service/NostrClient.php b/src/Service/NostrClient.php
index 0bfe45f..4574a85 100644
--- a/src/Service/NostrClient.php
+++ b/src/Service/NostrClient.php
@@ -38,9 +38,9 @@ class NostrClient
 {
     /**
      * Hard cap on unique relay URLs for article discussion. More relays do not help much (indexers duplicate)
-     * but blow up wall time when we fall back to sequential in-process {@see Request::send()}.
+     * but each URL can spawn a CLI worker ({@see NostrRelayFanoutTransport::sendParallelWorkers}) → Apache/CPU load.
      */
-    private const MAX_DISCUSSION_RELAY_URLS = 10;
+    private const MAX_DISCUSSION_RELAY_URLS = 8;
 
     /**
      * Kind-9802 highlight ingest ({@see fetchHighlightEventsForArticle} / prewarm): main + article + profile