diff --git a/tests/docker/validate-image.mjs b/tests/docker/validate-image.mjs
index 4d587aa..3d59f1d 100644
--- a/tests/docker/validate-image.mjs
+++ b/tests/docker/validate-image.mjs
@@ -196,6 +196,17 @@ function gracefulProGate(result) {
   );
 }
 
+// The docs tool's answer when its external search service is down (a timeout, a network error
+// or a 5xx), as opposed to our request being wrong.
+function docsServiceDown(result) {
+  return (
+    /Docs Search Unavailable/.test(result.text) &&
+    /(Request timed out|Connection refused|HTTP Error: 5\d\d|fetch failed|ECONNRESET|ENOTFOUND|EAI_AGAIN|ETIMEDOUT|socket hang up)/i.test(
+      result.text
+    )
+  );
+}
+
 function recordToolResult(key, name, result, predicate = (r) => !r.isError, note) {
   if (TOKEN_REAL) {
     record(key, name, predicate(result), snip(result.text, 600), note);
@@ -281,7 +292,8 @@ async function main() {
     }
   }
 
-  // 3. docs (token-only; calls an external API, so retry once for transient blips)
+  // 3. docs (token-only; calls an external API, so retry once for transient blips). An outage of
+  // that service itself is a warning: it says nothing about this image.
   if (!SKIP.has("docs")) {
     try {
       const r = await callToolUntil(
@@ -294,11 +306,14 @@ async function main() {
           ok: (x) => !x.isError && /LocalStack Docs/i.test(x.text),
         }
       );
+      const ok = !r.isError && /LocalStack Docs/i.test(r.text);
+      const down = !ok && docsServiceDown(r);
       record(
         "docs",
         "localstack-docs returns snippets",
-        !r.isError && /LocalStack Docs/i.test(r.text),
-        snip(r.text)
+        ok ? true : down ? "warn" : false,
+        snip(r.text),
+        down ? "the docs search service is down, which says nothing about this image" : undefined
       );
     } catch (e) {
       record("docs", "localstack-docs", false, String(e.message));
diff --git a/tests/mcp/direct.spec.mjs b/tests/mcp/direct.spec.mjs
index 4fff497..d64da11 100644
--- a/tests/mcp/direct.spec.mjs
+++ b/tests/mcp/direct.spec.mjs
@@ -61,6 +61,12 @@ test("smoke tests the infrastructure tester prompt", async ({ mcp }) => {
   expect(result.messages[0].content.text).toContain("`./infra`");
 });
 
+// The docs tool asks an external search service. When that service itself is down (a timeout, a
+// network error or a 5xx), the test is skipped with the tool's answer, since nothing in this
+// server is at fault. Any other answer, a 4xx included, must hold the snippets.
+const DOCS_SERVICE_DOWN =
+  /Request timed out|Connection refused|HTTP Error: 5\d\d|fetch failed|ECONNRESET|ENOTFOUND|EAI_AGAIN|ETIMEDOUT|socket hang up/i;
+
 test("docs tool returns useful documentation snippets", async ({ mcp }) => {
   requireEnv("LOCALSTACK_AUTH_TOKEN");
 
@@ -68,6 +74,11 @@ test("docs tool returns useful documentation snippets", async ({ mcp }) => {
     query: "How to start LocalStack and configure auth token",
     limit: 2,
   });
+  const text = (result?.content ?? []).map((c) => c.text ?? "").join("\n");
+  test.skip(
+    text.includes("Docs Search Unavailable") && DOCS_SERVICE_DOWN.test(text),
+    `the docs search service is unavailable: ${text.slice(0, 200)}`
+  );
 
   expect(result).not.toBeToolError();
   expect(result).toContainToolText("LocalStack Docs");
diff --git a/yarn.lock b/yarn.lock
index 7433752..a8b0a64 100644
--- a/yarn.lock
+++ b/yarn.lock
@@ -678,9 +678,9 @@
     ai "^6.0.97"
 
 "@grpc/grpc-js@^1.11.1":
-  version "1.14.4"
-  resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/@grpc/grpc-js/-/grpc-js-1.14.4.tgz#e73ff57d97802f063999545f43ebb2b1eca65d9d"
-  integrity sha512-k9Dj3DV/itK9D06Y8f190Qgop7/Ui+D0njFV3LHMPwPT75DpXLQohE9Wmz0QElrJnzsjB7KPWiKJbOl7IPDArQ==
+  version "1.14.5"
+  resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/@grpc/grpc-js/-/grpc-js-1.14.5.tgz#12f97bd9f716358e377ffaa768195d1219eb76a3"
+  integrity sha512-7VZM+SVdEcUUqSQeNI3zM8Qs/BhQKZndPo2h5VkYkAM8Iz0wJIa8mKV5ekQGqG8UUsnkQ0NMxIxwkIHYvj0qOw==
   dependencies:
     "@grpc/proto-loader" "^0.8.0"
     "@js-sdsl/ordered-map" "^4.4.2"
@@ -2616,9 +2616,9 @@ fast-string-width@^3.0.2:
     fast-string-truncated-width "^3.0.2"
 
 fast-uri@^3.0.1:
-  version "3.1.5"
-  resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/fast-uri/-/fast-uri-3.1.5.tgz#610f37419a030270430cecd68d74e3d4d96725d0"
-  integrity sha512-gHwA1O9LDIcKunMKhObS/HimwtehO1nPUECKAu5TpKgaO19fcWEl4bliWe1jWxVFvIXztJjjQ4L8XQ1EU9f7Jw==
+  version "3.1.8"
+  resolved "https://registry.yarnpkg.com/fast-uri/-/fast-uri-3.1.8.tgz#f7db8d942e20eead3cfe93b0beeb4eb0169e938b"
+  integrity sha512-GZMtZUTNRpOVIECoXwLNZS5xUGE+mVNbTB8h/7Rwh2TFWcBQiPzTgyZi05BF9UMZKkLJv8XBRJTlU7zg8+ZfMg==
 
 fast-wrap-ansi@^0.2.0:
   version "0.2.2"