diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 9ca27f8..a8ed19f 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -43,3 +43,11 @@
 - `CODEOWNERS`, `.editorconfig`, and Dependabot config (cargo + GitHub Actions,
   weekly).
 - Expanded `.gitignore` with IDE and build directories.
+
+### Fixed
+
+- `get_tables` no longer issues DescribeTable calls serially. On AWS accounts
+  with hundreds of tables the serial loop took over a minute (~300ms per
+  table), exceeding the GUI's connection timeout and failing the initial
+  connection. Describes now run with bounded concurrency (16 in flight) and
+  results are re-sorted alphabetically to preserve ListTables ordering.
diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 77337d8..d0d8e7e 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -681,13 +681,14 @@ checksum = "92773504d58c093f6de2459af4af33faa518c13451eb8f2b5698ed3d36e7c813"
 
 [[package]]
 name = "dynamodb-plugin"
-version = "0.1.1"
+version = "0.1.2"
 dependencies = [
  "assert-json-diff",
  "aws-config",
  "aws-sdk-dynamodb",
  "aws-smithy-types",
  "base64 0.23.0",
+ "futures",
  "serde",
  "serde_json",
  "serde_yaml",
@@ -750,6 +751,21 @@ version = "1.3.0"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "42703706b716c37f96a77aea830392ad231f44c9e9a67872fa5548707e11b11c"
 
+[[package]]
+name = "futures"
+version = "0.3.33"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "a88cf1f829d945f548cf8fec32c61b1f202b6d93b45848602fc02af4b12ad218"
+dependencies = [
+ "futures-channel",
+ "futures-core",
+ "futures-executor",
+ "futures-io",
+ "futures-sink",
+ "futures-task",
+ "futures-util",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "futures-channel"
 version = "0.3.33"
@@ -757,6 +773,7 @@ source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "262590f4fe6afeb0bc83be1daa64e52657fe185690a958af7f3ad0e92085c5ae"
 dependencies = [
  "futures-core",
+ "futures-sink",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
@@ -765,6 +782,34 @@ version = "0.3.33"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "2cd50c473c80f6d7c3670a752354b8e569b1a7cbfdc0419ec88e5edad85e0dc7"
 
+[[package]]
+name = "futures-executor"
+version = "0.3.33"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "6754879cc9f2c66f88c6e5c35344bb0bdb0708b0352b1201815667c7eabc7458"
+dependencies = [
+ "futures-core",
+ "futures-task",
+ "futures-util",
+]
+
+[[package]]
+name = "futures-io"
+version = "0.3.33"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "4577ecaa3c4f96589d473f679a71b596316f6641bc350038b962a5daf0085d7a"
+
+[[package]]
+name = "futures-macro"
+version = "0.3.33"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "2d6d3cde68c518367be28956066ddfef33813991b77a55005a69dae04bf3b10b"
+dependencies = [
+ "proc-macro2",
+ "quote",
+ "syn 2.0.119",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "futures-sink"
 version = "0.3.33"
@@ -783,8 +828,13 @@ version = "0.3.33"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "a77a90a256fce34da66415271e30f94ee91c57b04b8a2c042d9cf3220179deaa"
 dependencies = [
+ "futures-channel",
  "futures-core",
+ "futures-io",
+ "futures-macro",
+ "futures-sink",
  "futures-task",
+ "memchr",
  "pin-project-lite",
  "slab",
 ]
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 4fd5a87..7d1dc6b 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ aws-config = { version = "1", features = ["behavior-version-latest"] }
 aws-sdk-dynamodb = { version = "1", features = ["behavior-version-latest"] }
 aws-smithy-types = "1"
 base64 = "0.23"
+futures = "0.3"
 serde = { version = "1", features = ["derive"] }
 serde_json = "1"
 serde_yaml = "0.9"
diff --git a/src/handlers/metadata.rs b/src/handlers/metadata.rs
index f56b32d..4bf1f1f 100644
--- a/src/handlers/metadata.rs
+++ b/src/handlers/metadata.rs
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 //! Schema metadata: tables, columns, indexes, foreign keys.
 
+use futures::stream::{self, StreamExt};
 use serde_json::{json, Value};
 
 use crate::error::ErrorCode;
@@ -8,6 +9,13 @@ use crate::handlers::models::ColumnResponse;
 use crate::rpc::{error_response, ok_response};
 use crate::utils::extractor;
 
+/// Max in-flight DescribeTable calls while building the table list. On
+/// accounts with hundreds of tables a serial loop takes over a minute
+/// (~300ms per describe), which trips the GUI's connection timeout. Bounding
+/// concurrency keeps the full metadata (item count, size, status) without
+/// overwhelming the account's DescribeTable rate limit.
+const DESCRIBE_TABLE_CONCURRENCY: usize = 16;
+
 /// Returns the list of tables in DynamoDB with metadata.
 pub async fn get_tables(id: Value, params: &Value) -> Value {
     let client = match connection::build_client(params).await {
@@ -17,31 +25,38 @@ pub async fn get_tables(id: Value, params: &Value) -> Value {
 
     match client.list_tables().await {
         Ok(table_names) => {
-            let mut results = Vec::new();
-            for name in table_names {
-                // Fetch full table metadata via describe_table
-                match client.describe_table(&name).await {
-                    Ok(desc) => {
-                        results.push(json!({
+            let mut results: Vec<Value> = stream::iter(table_names.into_iter().map(|name| {
+                let client = client.clone();
+                async move {
+                    match client.describe_table(&name).await {
+                        Ok(desc) => json!({
                             "name": name,
                             "comment": null,
                             "item_count": desc.item_count.unwrap_or(0),
                             "table_size_bytes": desc.table_size_bytes.unwrap_or(0),
                             "table_status": desc.table_status.unwrap_or_else(|| "ACTIVE".to_string()),
-                        }));
-                    }
-                    Err(_) => {
-                        // Fallback if describe_table fails
-                        results.push(json!({
+                        }),
+                        Err(_) => json!({
                             "name": name,
                             "comment": null,
                             "item_count": 0,
                             "table_size_bytes": 0,
                             "table_status": "UNKNOWN",
-                        }));
+                        }),
                     }
                 }
-            }
+            }))
+            .buffer_unordered(DESCRIBE_TABLE_CONCURRENCY)
+            .collect()
+            .await;
+            // buffer_unordered completes out of order; restore alphabetical
+            // ordering so the sidebar matches ListTables order.
+            results.sort_by(|a, b| {
+                a["name"]
+                    .as_str()
+                    .unwrap_or("")
+                    .cmp(b["name"].as_str().unwrap_or(""))
+            });
             ok_response(id, json!(results))
         }
         Err(err) => error_response(id, ErrorCode::InternalError, &err.message),