diff --git a/frontend/Trunk.toml b/frontend/Trunk.toml
index 62f1692..00943eb 100644
--- a/frontend/Trunk.toml
+++ b/frontend/Trunk.toml
@@ -29,8 +29,20 @@ inject_scripts = true
 [watch]
 # Paths to watch. The `build.target`'s parent folder is watched by default.
 watch = []
-# Paths to ignore.
-ignore = ["node_modules", "style/uno.css"]
+# Paths to ignore. Besides build inputs, this excludes the Playwright output
+# directories: during `just e2e` the dev server watches `frontend/`, and
+# Playwright continuously writes traces, screenshots, and videos into
+# `test-results/` (and the HTML report into `playwright-report/`). Without these
+# ignores the watcher triggers a storm of rebuilds mid-test, starving the
+# browser's WASM compile/instantiate and intermittently leaving pages blank past
+# the test timeout. Trunk canonicalizes these paths at startup, so the `e2e`
+# recipe creates them first.
+ignore = [
+	"node_modules",
+	"style/uno.css",
+	"test-results",
+	"playwright-report",
+]
 
 [serve]
 # The address to serve on.
diff --git a/justfile b/justfile
index ed5560c..0e46071 100644
--- a/justfile
+++ b/justfile
@@ -219,6 +219,10 @@ e2e: frontend-config frontend-e2e-typecheck
 	source scripts/e2e-env.sh
 	source scripts/service-graph.sh
 	mkdir -p "$E2E_LOG_DIR"
+	# Pre-create Playwright's output dirs so the trunk dev server can canonicalize
+	# them as watch-ignore paths at startup (see frontend/Trunk.toml). Without this
+	# the server fails to start on a fresh checkout.
+	mkdir -p frontend/test-results frontend/playwright-report
 
 	run_e2e() {
 		local backend_pid=""
@@ -230,11 +234,16 @@ e2e: frontend-config frontend-e2e-typecheck
 			trap - EXIT INT TERM
 			memory_map_stop_pid "${frontend_pid:-}"
 			memory_map_stop_pid "${backend_pid:-}"
+			# The servers run behind a `direnv exec`/bash wrapper, so the tracked
+			# pid is the wrapper and the real server can survive on its port. Free
+			# the ports directly so local re-runs are not blocked by an orphan.
+			memory_map_free_port "${E2E_FRONTEND_PORT}"
+			memory_map_free_port "${E2E_BACKEND_PORT}"
 			exit "$status"
 		}
 		trap cleanup_app_servers EXIT INT TERM
 
-		{{ direnv_prefix }} bash -c 'cd backend && exec cargo run --bin backend' > "$E2E_LOG_DIR/backend.log" 2>&1 &
+		{{ direnv_prefix }} bash -c 'cd backend && exec ../target/debug/backend' > "$E2E_LOG_DIR/backend.log" 2>&1 &
 		backend_pid=$!
 		if ! memory_map_wait_for_http "$E2E_BACKEND_URL/" 120 "GraphiQL"; then
 			echo "ERROR: backend did not become ready; see $E2E_LOG_DIR/backend.log." >&2
@@ -242,7 +251,7 @@ e2e: frontend-config frontend-e2e-typecheck
 			return 1
 		fi
 
-		{{ direnv_prefix }} bash -c 'cd frontend && exec env -u NO_COLOR trunk serve --address "$E2E_FRONTEND_HOST" --port "$E2E_FRONTEND_PORT" --no-autoreload --skip-version-check --offline' > "$E2E_LOG_DIR/frontend.log" 2>&1 &
+		{{ direnv_prefix }} bash -c 'cd frontend && exec env -u NO_COLOR trunk serve --address "$E2E_FRONTEND_HOST" --port "$E2E_FRONTEND_PORT" --no-autoreload --skip-version-check --offline --no-sri' > "$E2E_LOG_DIR/frontend.log" 2>&1 &
 		frontend_pid=$!
 		if ! memory_map_wait_for_http "$E2E_FRONTEND_URL/" 120; then
 			echo "ERROR: frontend did not become ready; see $E2E_LOG_DIR/frontend.log." >&2
diff --git a/scripts/service-graph.sh b/scripts/service-graph.sh
index 9d9386e..03350dc 100644
--- a/scripts/service-graph.sh
+++ b/scripts/service-graph.sh
@@ -65,6 +65,27 @@ memory_map_stop_pid() {
 	fi
 }
 
+# Stop whatever is still listening on a local TCP port. The e2e servers run
+# behind a `direnv exec`/bash wrapper, so the tracked pid is the wrapper and the
+# real server (backend, trunk) can survive on its port after the wrapper is
+# killed, blocking the next local run. This targets only the given port, so it
+# never touches unrelated processes. No-op if `ss` is unavailable (e.g. CI,
+# which has no wrapper and so does not orphan in the first place).
+memory_map_free_port() {
+	local port="${1:-}"
+	local pid
+
+	[[ -n "${port}" ]] || return 0
+	command -v ss >/dev/null 2>&1 || return 0
+
+	# Best-effort cleanup; the pipeline's intermediate exit codes are irrelevant.
+	# shellcheck disable=SC2312
+	for pid in $(ss -ltnp 2>/dev/null | grep ":${port} " |
+		grep -oE 'pid=[0-9]+' | grep -oE '[0-9]+' | sort -u); do
+		kill "${pid}" 2>/dev/null || true
+	done
+}
+
 memory_map_with_process_compose() {
 	local port="$1"
 	local log_path="$2"