diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7536242
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+name: CI
+
+# The repository had no CI at all: publish-to-pypi.yml was the only workflow,
+# so pull requests were merged with nothing verifying them.
+on:
+  push:
+    branches: [main]
+  pull_request:
+
+jobs:
+  test:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    strategy:
+      fail-fast: false
+      matrix:
+        # The boundaries of what pyproject.toml claims to support
+        # (requires-python = ">=3.8"), plus the version the release
+        # workflow builds with.
+        python-version: ["3.8", "3.11", "3.13"]
+
+    name: test (py${{ matrix.python-version }})
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+
+      - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
+        with:
+          python-version: ${{ matrix.python-version }}
+          cache: pip
+
+      - name: Install package and test dependencies
+        run: |
+          python -m pip install --upgrade pip
+          pip install -e .
+          pip install pytest pytest-cov
+
+      # Integration tests need a live FDC API key and django tests need Django;
+      # neither belongs in a pull-request gate.
+      - name: Run unit tests
+        run: pytest -m "not integration and not django" -v
+
+  build:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    name: build (sdist + wheel)
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+
+      - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
+        with:
+          python-version: "3.13"
+
+      - name: Install build tooling
+        run: |
+          python -m pip install --upgrade pip
+          pip install build twine
+
+      # Catches a broken package before a tag turns it into a permanent
+      # PyPI release — a bad version can only be yanked, never replaced.
+      - name: Build and check the distribution
+        run: |
+          python -m build
+          python -m twine check dist/*
diff --git a/.github/workflows/publish-to-pypi.yml b/.github/workflows/publish-to-pypi.yml
index caea6c6..bf4316b 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/publish-to-pypi.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/publish-to-pypi.yml
@@ -27,11 +27,21 @@ jobs:
       - name: Install dependencies
         run: |
           python -m pip install --upgrade pip
-          pip install build twine
+          pip install build twine pytest
+          pip install -e .
+
+      # A release to PyPI cannot be undone — a bad version can only be yanked,
+      # and the version number is burned forever. So the tag must not be able
+      # to ship code that does not pass its own tests.
+      - name: Run tests
+        run: pytest -m "not integration and not django" -v
 
       - name: Build package
         run: python -m build
 
+      - name: Check the distribution
+        run: python -m twine check dist/*
+
       - name: Create GitHub Release
         uses: softprops/action-gh-release@v1
         with:
diff --git a/docs/api/exceptions.rst b/docs/api/exceptions.rst
index 876b549..abecd01 100644
--- a/docs/api/exceptions.rst
+++ b/docs/api/exceptions.rst
@@ -23,6 +23,12 @@ FdcRateLimitError
 .. autoclass:: FdcRateLimitError
    :members:
 
+FdcTimeoutError
+-------------
+
+.. autoclass:: FdcTimeoutError
+   :members:
+
 FdcValidationError
 ----------------
 
diff --git a/docs/user/error_handling.rst b/docs/user/error_handling.rst
index eca39fe..23e9a38 100644
--- a/docs/user/error_handling.rst
+++ b/docs/user/error_handling.rst
@@ -11,9 +11,33 @@ The library defines the following exception hierarchy:
 - ``FdcApiError``: Base exception for all API errors
   - ``FdcAuthError``: Authentication failed (invalid API key)
   - ``FdcRateLimitError``: API rate limit exceeded
+  - ``FdcTimeoutError``: The API did not respond within the client timeout
   - ``FdcValidationError``: Invalid input parameters
   - ``FdcResourceNotFoundError``: Requested resource not found
 
+Request Timeouts
+--------------
+
+Every request is issued with a timeout, so a server that accepts a connection but
+never answers cannot block the caller indefinitely. The default is 30 seconds, and
+it applies to both connect and read:
+
+.. code-block:: python
+
+   from usda_fdc import FdcClient, FdcTimeoutError
+
+   # Use the 30 second default, or set your own
+   client = FdcClient(api_key="your_api_key_here", timeout=5.0)
+
+   try:
+       food = client.get_food(1750340)
+   except FdcTimeoutError as e:
+       print(f"FDC was too slow: {e}")
+
+``FdcTimeoutError`` subclasses ``FdcApiError``, so existing ``except FdcApiError``
+blocks keep catching timeouts. Catch it separately when you want to tell "slow"
+apart from "broken" — a timeout is usually worth retrying, a 400 is not.
+
 Basic Error Handling
 -----------------