diff --git a/hugegraph-server/hugegraph-dist/docker/README.md b/hugegraph-server/hugegraph-dist/docker/README.md
index 9214aa830e..07f5c5ae08 100644
--- a/hugegraph-server/hugegraph-dist/docker/README.md
+++ b/hugegraph-server/hugegraph-dist/docker/README.md
@@ -144,3 +144,30 @@ native `HEALTHCHECK` instructions. `docker ps` shows real health status:
 | `hugegraph/hugegraph-store` | `GET /v1/health` on port 8520 |
 
 The entrypoints supervise the Java process directly — when Java exits, the container exits. If started with a restart policy (the provided compose files use `restart: unless-stopped`), Docker will bring it back automatically. The old cron-based monitor (`-m true`) is for VM/bare-metal deployments only and is not used in Docker images.
+
+## 7. Server Startup Timeout
+
+The entrypoint gives the Server a fixed budget to answer on its REST port and
+ends the container when the budget runs out. It is 120 seconds by default. Set
+`HG_SERVER_STARTUP_TIMEOUT_S` to a whole number of seconds between 1 and 86400
+to change it:
+
+```bash
+docker run -itd --name=graph -p 8080:8080 -e HG_SERVER_STARTUP_TIMEOUT_S=450 hugegraph/hugegraph:1.7.0
+```
+
+Raise it on slow or contended hosts, and wherever an orchestrator already owns
+the startup budget through a probe of its own: a startup probe cannot extend a
+container that has already ended the JVM it was waiting for. Anything outside
+the accepted range, an empty value included, stops the container at startup
+instead of silently falling back to the default.
+
+Raising this budget does not move the health check described in section 6,
+which runs on a clock of its own. The images set `--interval=15s
+--start-period=90s --retries=3`, so a container given a longer startup budget
+is reported `unhealthy` around 135 seconds while the entrypoint is still
+legitimately waiting; raise it with `--health-start-period` on `docker run`.
+The Compose files replace those values with their own (`start_period: 60s`,
+`interval: 10s`, `retries: 30`, so roughly 360 seconds), and anything gated on
+`depends_on: condition: service_healthy`, Hubble included, waits on that budget
+rather than on this variable. Move the two together.
diff --git a/hugegraph-server/hugegraph-dist/docker/docker-entrypoint-test.sh b/hugegraph-server/hugegraph-dist/docker/docker-entrypoint-test.sh
index 6e22885ebe..6a38520bb3 100755
--- a/hugegraph-server/hugegraph-dist/docker/docker-entrypoint-test.sh
+++ b/hugegraph-server/hugegraph-dist/docker/docker-entrypoint-test.sh
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ backend=rocksdb
 EOF
 cat > "${TEST_HOME}/bin/start-hugegraph.sh" <<'EOF'
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
+printf '%s\n' "$*" >> ./docker/start-hugegraph-args
 exit 0
 EOF
 cat > "${TEST_HOME}/bin/init-store.sh" <<'EOF'
@@ -232,4 +233,60 @@ rm -f "${TEST_HOME}/docker/init_complete"
 )
 grep -Fqx -- '-n' "${TEST_HOME}/docker/init-store-password"
 
+last_start_args() { tail -n 1 "${TEST_HOME}/docker/start-hugegraph-args"; }
+
+[[ "$(last_start_args)" == *"-t 120"* ]]
+
+(
+    cd "${TEST_HOME}"
+    HG_SERVER_STARTUP_TIMEOUT_S=450 bash ./docker-entrypoint.sh
+)
+[[ "$(last_start_args)" == *"-t 450"* ]]
+
+(
+    cd "${TEST_HOME}"
+    HG_SERVER_STARTUP_TIMEOUT_S=86400 bash ./docker-entrypoint.sh
+)
+[[ "$(last_start_args)" == *"-t 86400"* ]]
+
+# An empty value is a set value, not an absent one: Compose writes it whenever
+# an interpolated host variable is missing. 2m is the shape of a typo, and the
+# two large values bracket the point where the deadline arithmetic in
+# wait_for_startup would wrap negative and end the wait before its first probe.
+for invalid_timeout in "" " " 0 +5 2m 86401 9223372036854775807; do
+    start_calls_before_invalid=$(wc -l < "${TEST_HOME}/docker/start-hugegraph-args")
+    init_calls_before_invalid=$(wc -l < "${TEST_HOME}/docker/init-store-calls")
+    if (
+        cd "${TEST_HOME}"
+        HG_SERVER_STARTUP_TIMEOUT_S="${invalid_timeout}" \
+            bash ./docker-entrypoint.sh
+    ); then
+        echo "startup timeout '${invalid_timeout}' unexpectedly succeeded" >&2
+        exit 1
+    fi
+    # The server must not have started, and the guard must have run ahead of
+    # init-store, as the comment above it in the entrypoint claims. Spelled
+    # with an explicit exit rather than a bare [[ ]]: bash 3.2, still the
+    # /bin/bash of macOS, does not apply set -e to a failing [[ ]], so a bare
+    # assertion passes silently there while CI catches the regression.
+    [[ "$(wc -l < "${TEST_HOME}/docker/start-hugegraph-args")" -eq \
+       "${start_calls_before_invalid}" ]] || {
+        echo "startup timeout '${invalid_timeout}' started the server" >&2
+        exit 1
+    }
+    [[ "$(wc -l < "${TEST_HOME}/docker/init-store-calls")" -eq \
+       "${init_calls_before_invalid}" ]] || {
+        echo "startup timeout '${invalid_timeout}' was rejected only after" \
+             "init-store ran" >&2
+        exit 1
+    }
+done
+
+# An unset variable still keeps the historical default.
+(
+    cd "${TEST_HOME}"
+    bash ./docker-entrypoint.sh
+)
+[[ "$(last_start_args)" == *"-t 120"* ]]
+
 echo "PASS: Docker entrypoint configures HStore discovery and authentication"
diff --git a/hugegraph-server/hugegraph-dist/docker/docker-entrypoint.sh b/hugegraph-server/hugegraph-dist/docker/docker-entrypoint.sh
index fe9974c430..b5ba2de34f 100755
--- a/hugegraph-server/hugegraph-dist/docker/docker-entrypoint.sh
+++ b/hugegraph-server/hugegraph-dist/docker/docker-entrypoint.sh
@@ -98,6 +98,29 @@ if [[ -n "${HG_SERVER_AUTH_TOKEN_SECRET:-}" ]]; then
     fi
 fi
 
+# How long the entrypoint lets the server take to answer on its REST port
+# before it gives up and ends the container. An orchestrator that already
+# owns this budget through a startup probe needs to raise it, otherwise the
+# container terminates a JVM that is still starting and the probe never gets
+# to decide. Validated here so a bad value fails before init-store runs,
+# rather than reaching the arithmetic in wait_for_startup: that deadline is
+# $((now_s + timeout_s)), which wraps negative near the 64-bit ceiling and
+# makes the wait exit before its first probe, the very failure this variable
+# exists to avoid. The five-digit bound keeps this comparison in range too,
+# and a day is already far past any real start. Plain '-' rather than ':-',
+# so an explicitly empty value is rejected instead of quietly becoming the
+# default: Compose interpolation such as ${SOME_VAR:-} yields empty, not
+# unset, whenever the host variable is missing.
+SERVER_STARTUP_TIMEOUT_MAX_S=86400
+SERVER_STARTUP_TIMEOUT_S="${HG_SERVER_STARTUP_TIMEOUT_S-120}"
+if [[ ! "${SERVER_STARTUP_TIMEOUT_S}" =~ ^[1-9][0-9]{0,4}$ ]] ||
+   (( SERVER_STARTUP_TIMEOUT_S > SERVER_STARTUP_TIMEOUT_MAX_S )); then
+    log "ERROR: HG_SERVER_STARTUP_TIMEOUT_S must be a whole number of" \
+        "seconds from 1 to ${SERVER_STARTUP_TIMEOUT_MAX_S}," \
+        "got '${SERVER_STARTUP_TIMEOUT_S}'"
+    exit 1
+fi
+
 if [[ -n "${PASSWORD:-}" &&
       "${HG_SERVER_REQUIRE_AUTH_TOKEN_SECRET:-false}" == "true" &&
       -z "${HG_SERVER_AUTH_TOKEN_SECRET:-}" ]]; then
@@ -217,7 +240,7 @@ else
     ./bin/init-store.sh
 fi
 
-./bin/start-hugegraph.sh -j "${JAVA_OPTS:-}" -t 120
+./bin/start-hugegraph.sh -j "${JAVA_OPTS:-}" -t "${SERVER_STARTUP_TIMEOUT_S}"
 
 # Post-startup cluster stabilization check (hstore only — rocksdb has no partitions)
 ACTUAL_BACKEND=$(grep -E '^[[:space:]]*backend[[:space:]]*=' "${GRAPH_CONF}" | head -n 1 | sed 's/.*=//' | tr -d '[:space:]' || true)