diff --git a/src/memos/cli.py b/src/memos/cli.py
index 2ead5ab29..e9a690680 100644
--- a/src/memos/cli.py
+++ b/src/memos/cli.py
@@ -42,7 +42,10 @@ def download_examples(dest: str) -> bool:
     print(f"📥 Downloading examples from {zip_url}...")
 
     try:
-        response = requests.get(zip_url)
+        # Without an explicit timeout a stalled connection hangs the CLI
+        # forever; requests retries neither, and a dead download should fail
+        # into the RequestException handler below instead.
+        response = requests.get(zip_url, timeout=60)
         response.raise_for_status()
 
         with zipfile.ZipFile(BytesIO(response.content)) as z:
diff --git a/tests/test_cli_download_timeout.py b/tests/test_cli_download_timeout.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d176d97e4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_cli_download_timeout.py
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+import sys
+import types
+
+from pathlib import Path
+from unittest.mock import MagicMock, patch
+
+import pytest
+
+
+SRC_DIR = Path(__file__).resolve().parents[1] / "src" / "memos"
+
+
+@pytest.fixture
+def download_examples():
+    # memos.cli only needs a namespace stub at package level; the module
+    # itself has no heavy imports (the FastAPI app import is lazy)
+    if "memos" not in sys.modules:
+        memos_pkg = types.ModuleType("memos")
+        memos_pkg.__path__ = [str(SRC_DIR)]
+        sys.modules["memos"] = memos_pkg
+    import memos.cli
+
+    return memos.cli.download_examples
+
+
+# an empty-zip archive header makes the extraction loop a no-op; the point
+# of the test is the arguments passed to requests.get
+EMPTY_ZIP = b"PK\x05\x06" + b"\x00" * 18
+
+
+def test_download_examples_sends_timeout(download_examples):
+    fake_response = MagicMock()
+    fake_response.content = EMPTY_ZIP
+    with patch("requests.get", return_value=fake_response) as mock_get:
+        download_examples("/tmp/memos-cli-examples-test")
+    _, kwargs = mock_get.call_args
+    assert kwargs.get("timeout") is not None
+
+
+def test_download_examples_still_succeeds(download_examples, tmp_path):
+    fake_response = MagicMock()
+    fake_response.content = EMPTY_ZIP
+    with patch("requests.get", return_value=fake_response):
+        assert download_examples(str(tmp_path)) is True