diff --git a/scripts/docker-e2e-timings.mjs b/scripts/docker-e2e-timings.mjs
index 543d3aa4c203..e211b7618864 100644
--- a/scripts/docker-e2e-timings.mjs
+++ b/scripts/docker-e2e-timings.mjs
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 // Accepts scheduler summary.json or lane-timings.json so agents can see the
 // slowest lanes and phase critical path before deciding what to rerun.
 import fs from "node:fs";
+import { parsePositiveInt } from "./lib/numeric-options.mjs";
 
 function usage() {
   return "Usage: node scripts/docker-e2e-timings.mjs <summary.json|lane-timings.json> [--limit N]";
@@ -15,9 +16,9 @@ function parseArgs(argv) {
     if (arg === "--help" || arg === "-h") {
       options.help = true;
     } else if (arg === "--limit") {
-      options.limit = Number(argv[(index += 1)] ?? "");
+      options.limit = parsePositiveInt(argv[(index += 1)], "--limit");
     } else if (arg?.startsWith("--limit=")) {
-      options.limit = Number(arg.slice("--limit=".length));
+      options.limit = parsePositiveInt(arg.slice("--limit=".length), "--limit");
     } else if (!options.file) {
       options.file = arg;
     } else {
@@ -27,7 +28,7 @@ function parseArgs(argv) {
   if (options.help) {
     return options;
   }
-  if (!options.file || !Number.isInteger(options.limit) || options.limit < 1) {
+  if (!options.file) {
     throw new Error(usage());
   }
   return options;
diff --git a/test/scripts/docker-e2e-helper-cli.test.ts b/test/scripts/docker-e2e-helper-cli.test.ts
index 0c44cfdc0a58..6a6d0a933d59 100644
--- a/test/scripts/docker-e2e-helper-cli.test.ts
+++ b/test/scripts/docker-e2e-helper-cli.test.ts
@@ -42,6 +42,16 @@ describe("Docker E2E helper CLIs", () => {
     );
   });
 
+  it("rejects malformed timings limits without a Node stack trace", () => {
+    const result = runHelper("scripts/docker-e2e-timings.mjs", "summary.json", "--limit=1e3");
+
+    expect(result.status).toBe(1);
+    expect(result.stdout).toBe("");
+    expect(result.stderr).toContain("--limit must be a positive integer");
+    expect(result.stderr).not.toContain("Error:");
+    expect(result.stderr).not.toContain("at file:");
+  });
+
   it("prints rerun help without detecting the GitHub repository", () => {
     const result = runHelper("scripts/docker-e2e-rerun.mjs", "--help");