diff --git a/bin/fxt/src/mcp/server.rs b/bin/fxt/src/mcp/server.rs
index 23150a1d2..2d7eb10e1 100644
--- a/bin/fxt/src/mcp/server.rs
+++ b/bin/fxt/src/mcp/server.rs
@@ -1620,13 +1620,11 @@ mod tests {
     /// Tests only exercise protocol handling; actual gRPC calls will return
     /// transport errors which are surfaced as `isError` tool results.
     async fn make_server() -> McpServer {
-        // Ensure the token storage directory exists so FileTokenStorage::new()
-        // does not fail during tests.
-        let config_dir = dirs::config_dir()
-            .unwrap_or_else(|| std::path::PathBuf::from("/tmp"))
-            .join("foxhunt-tli")
-            .join("tokens");
-        let _ = std::fs::create_dir_all(&config_dir);
+        // Point XDG_CONFIG_HOME to a writable temp dir so FileTokenStorage::new()
+        // works even on CI containers where $HOME may be unwritable (e.g. /root/ as uid 1000).
+        let tmp = std::env::temp_dir().join("fxt-test-config");
+        std::fs::create_dir_all(&tmp).unwrap();
+        std::env::set_var("XDG_CONFIG_HOME", &tmp);
 
         let client = FoxhuntClient::connect("http://localhost:9090")
             .await