diff --git a/src/test/nim/tserver.nim b/src/test/nim/tserver.nim
index cc517bc..19779b7 100644
--- a/src/test/nim/tserver.nim
+++ b/src/test/nim/tserver.nim
@@ -25,7 +25,8 @@ let testuser = UserRef( # note: needs to correspond to an actual user
 suite "strawboss server":
 
   # suite setup code
-  discard startProcess("./strawboss", ".", @["serve", "-c", cfgFilePath], loadEnv(), {poUsePath})
+  let serverProcess = startProcess("./strawboss", ".",
+    @["serve", "-c", cfgFilePath], loadEnv(), {poUsePath})
 
   let http = newHttpClient()
 
@@ -89,7 +90,11 @@ suite "strawboss server":
     check sameContents(projects, cfg.projects)
 
   # suite tear-down
+
+  # give the server time to spin down but kill it after that
   discard newAsyncHttpClient().post(apiBase & "/service/debug/stop")
+  sleep(100)
+  if serverProcess.running: kill(serverProcess)
 
 suite "strawboss server continued":
 
@@ -99,13 +104,20 @@ suite "strawboss server continued":
     var newCfg = cfg
     newCfg.artifactsRepo = tmpArtifactsDir
     writeFile(tmpCfgPath, $newCfg)
-    discard startProcess("./strawboss", ".", @["serve", "-c", tmpCfgPath], loadEnv(), {poUsePath})
+    let serverProcess = startProcess("./strawboss", ".",
+      @["serve", "-c", tmpCfgPath], loadEnv(), {poUsePath})
 
     # give the server time to spin up
     sleep(100)
 
   teardown:
     discard newAsyncHttpClient().post(apiBase & "/service/debug/stop")
+    removeDir(tmpArtifactsDir)
+    removeFile(tmpCfgPath)
+
+    # give the server time to spin down but kill it after that
+    sleep(100)
+    if serverProcess.running: kill(serverProcess)
 
   test "handle missing project configuration":
     let http = newAuthenticatedHttpClient(apibase, "bob@builder.com", "password")