diff --git a/tests/proof/cases/04_query_correctness.sh b/tests/proof/cases/04_query_correctness.sh
index 3d5d4ba..39e8169 100755
--- a/tests/proof/cases/04_query_correctness.sh
+++ b/tests/proof/cases/04_query_correctness.sh
@@ -26,6 +26,15 @@ substitute_table() {
     sed "s/FROM workers/FROM ${DATASET}/g; s/from workers/from ${DATASET}/g"
 }
 
+# Wait for queryd to have the view from 03's ingest. queryd refreshes
+# every 500ms (proof override of the 30s prod default); on cache-warm
+# runs cases fire faster than the next tick. Up to 5s budget.
+if ! proof_wait_for_sql 5 "SELECT 1 FROM ${DATASET} LIMIT 0"; then
+    proof_skip "$CASE_ID" "queryd view ${DATASET} never appeared in 5s" \
+        "queryd refresh ticker may be stalled or 03_ingest registration failed"
+    return 0 2>/dev/null || exit 0
+fi
+
 # Iterate the 5 queries.
 n=$(jq '.queries | length' "$EXPECTED_FILE")
 for i in $(seq 0 $((n-1))); do
diff --git a/tests/proof/lib/http.sh b/tests/proof/lib/http.sh
index f3def3e..5326241 100644
--- a/tests/proof/lib/http.sh
+++ b/tests/proof/lib/http.sh
@@ -108,6 +108,32 @@ proof_call() {
     _proof_http_run "$case_id" "$probe" "$method" "$url" "$@"
 }
 
+# proof_wait_for_sql: wait for a SQL probe to return 200, up to budget
+# seconds. Use when a case follows an ingest and queryd's view-refresh
+# (default 500ms tick) may not have fired yet. NOT a retry — a wait
+# for a known eventual-consistency event. No evidence emitted (this
+# is test setup, not a claim).
+#
+#   proof_wait_for_sql <budget_sec> <sql>
+#
+# Returns 0 if the probe succeeded; 1 on timeout.
+proof_wait_for_sql() {
+    local budget="${1:-10}" sql="$2"
+    local deadline=$(($(date +%s) + budget))
+    local body
+    body=$(jq -nc --arg s "$sql" '{sql:$s}')
+    while [ "$(date +%s)" -lt "$deadline" ]; do
+        if curl -sf --max-time 1 -X POST \
+                -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
+                -d "$body" \
+                "${PROOF_GATEWAY_URL}/v1/sql" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+            return 0
+        fi
+        sleep 0.1
+    done
+    return 1
+}
+
 # Helper accessors — reads the per-probe JSON.
 proof_status_of() {
     local case_id="$1" probe="$2"