diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 474f6867fdca57542a15b0387c2abbdfa1f48b8e..498069d827c2df89f945f6752bcc713f99620249 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -125,13 +125,16 @@ addons:
       - libseccomp-dev
       ## zstd doesn't exist in Ubuntu Trusty
       #- libzstd
+      - shellcheck
       ## Conditional build dependencies
       ## Always installed, so we don't need sudo
       - asciidoc
       - docbook-xsl
       - docbook-xml
       - xmlto
-      - shellcheck
+      ## Utilities
+      ## preventing or diagnosing hangs
+      - timelimit
   ## (OSX only)
   homebrew:
     packages:
@@ -151,11 +154,14 @@ addons:
       - pkg-config
       ## Optional build dependencies
       - ccache
+      - shellcheck
       ## Conditional build dependencies
       ## Always installed, because manual brew installs are hard to get right
       - asciidoc
       - xmlto
-      - shellcheck
+      ## Utilities
+      ## preventing or diagnosing hangs
+      - timelimit
 
 ## (OSX only) Use the default OSX image
 ## See https://docs.travis-ci.com/user/reference/osx#os-x-version
@@ -207,7 +213,8 @@ script:
   - ./configure $CONFIGURE_FLAGS
   ## We run `make check` because that's what https://jenkins.torproject.org does.
   - if [[ "$DISTCHECK" == "" && "$TEST_STEM" == "" ]]; then make check; fi
-  - if [[ "$TEST_STEM" != "" ]]; then make src/app/tor test-stem; fi
+  ## Diagnostic for bug 29437: kill stem if it hangs for 15 minutes
+  - if [[ "$TEST_STEM" != "" ]]; then timelimit -p -t 540 -T 30 make src/app/tor test-stem; fi
   - if [[ "$DISTCHECK" != "" && "$TEST_STEM" == "" ]]; then make distcheck DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS="$CONFIGURE_FLAGS"; fi
 
 after_failure:
diff --git a/changes/bug30011 b/changes/bug30011
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..4c9069e29156ac6fb2b7cb922777cc8fed7d0114
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changes/bug30011
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+  o Minor bugfixes (CI):
+    - Terminate test-stem if it takes more than 9.5 minutes to run.
+      (Travis terminates the job after 10 minutes of no output.)
+      Diagnostic for 29437. Fixes bug 30011; bugfix on 0.3.5.4-alpha.