diff --git a/tests/integration/_search_helpers.py b/tests/integration/_search_helpers.py
index 65800bed..c40ddb29 100644
--- a/tests/integration/_search_helpers.py
+++ b/tests/integration/_search_helpers.py
@@ -6,12 +6,13 @@ the single-user sampling tests can import it.
 
 import json
 import logging
+from typing import Any
 
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
 
 async def document_is_searchable(
-    mcp_client, search_term: str, note_id: int | None = None
+    mcp_client: Any, search_term: str, note_id: int | None = None
 ) -> bool:
     """Return True once a freshly-created document is retrievable.
 
diff --git a/tests/integration/test_astrolabe_session_jwt_search.py b/tests/integration/test_astrolabe_session_jwt_search.py
index 583a300a..40141b0e 100644
--- a/tests/integration/test_astrolabe_session_jwt_search.py
+++ b/tests/integration/test_astrolabe_session_jwt_search.py
@@ -57,7 +57,8 @@ async def _get_with_retry(
                 "GET %s failed (attempt %s/%s): %s", url, attempt, max_attempts, e
             )
             await anyio.sleep(2)
-    raise last_exc  # type: ignore[misc]
+    assert last_exc is not None  # loop ran at least once, so this is set
+    raise last_exc
 
 
 async def _astrolabe_configured(client: httpx.AsyncClient, auth) -> bool:
diff --git a/tests/integration/test_rag.py b/tests/integration/test_rag.py
index 41e8956c..ea55a7a5 100644
--- a/tests/integration/test_rag.py
+++ b/tests/integration/test_rag.py
@@ -405,7 +405,7 @@ async def test_retrieval_quality_all_queries(
     )
 
 
-async def _top_score(nc_mcp_client, query: str) -> float | None:
+async def _top_score(nc_mcp_client: Any, query: str) -> float | None:
     """Return the best fusion score for ``query``, or None if no results."""
     result = await nc_mcp_client.call_tool(
         "nc_semantic_search",
@@ -413,9 +413,10 @@ async def _top_score(nc_mcp_client, query: str) -> float | None:
     )
     assert result.isError is False
     data = json.loads(result.content[0].text)
-    if data["total_found"] == 0:
+    results = data.get("results", [])
+    if not results:  # guard the list directly, not via total_found
         return None
-    return max(r["score"] for r in data["results"])
+    return max(r["score"] for r in results)
 
 
 async def test_no_results_for_unrelated_query(nc_mcp_client, indexed_manual_pdf):