diff --git a/src/routes/Dashboard/DashboardComponentsV2View.test.tsx b/src/routes/Dashboard/DashboardComponentsV2View.test.tsx
index cb563d991..d289e419c 100644
--- a/src/routes/Dashboard/DashboardComponentsV2View.test.tsx
+++ b/src/routes/Dashboard/DashboardComponentsV2View.test.tsx
@@ -414,13 +414,16 @@ describe("DashboardComponentsV2View", () => {
     expect(screen.getByText("Registered component")).toBeInTheDocument();
   });
 
-  it("lets AI search run against a bounded candidate pool when literal search has no matches", () => {
+  it("lets AI search run against a bounded candidate pool when literal search has no matches", async () => {
     routeMocks.aiSearchConfigured = true;
     render(<DashboardComponentsV2View />);
 
     fireEvent.change(screen.getByLabelText("Search components"), {
       target: { value: "find something semantically relevant" },
     });
+    await waitFor(() => {
+      expect(screen.getByRole("button", { name: "AI search" })).toBeEnabled();
+    });
     fireEvent.click(screen.getByRole("button", { name: "AI search" }));
 
     expect(routeMocks.rerank).toHaveBeenCalledWith({
diff --git a/src/routes/Dashboard/DashboardComponentsV2View.tsx b/src/routes/Dashboard/DashboardComponentsV2View.tsx
index 7bda95495..c2408d4f0 100644
--- a/src/routes/Dashboard/DashboardComponentsV2View.tsx
+++ b/src/routes/Dashboard/DashboardComponentsV2View.tsx
@@ -2,7 +2,13 @@ import Bugsnag from "@bugsnag/js";
 import { useQuery, useQueryClient } from "@tanstack/react-query";
 import { Link, useNavigate, useSearch } from "@tanstack/react-router";
 import { useLiveQuery } from "dexie-react-hooks";
-import { type ChangeEvent, useEffect, useState } from "react";
+import {
+  type ChangeEvent,
+  useDeferredValue,
+  useEffect,
+  useRef,
+  useState,
+} from "react";
 
 import { listApiPublishedComponentsGet } from "@/api/sdk.gen";
 import {
@@ -109,6 +115,7 @@ const SOURCE_ICON_TONE_BY_KIND: Record<ComponentSearchSource["kind"], string> =
 const LEXICAL_RESULT_LIMIT = 20;
 /** Bounded pool sent to AI search on click. */
 const AI_CANDIDATE_LIMIT = 80;
+const SEARCH_QUERY_DEBOUNCE_MS = 200;
 
 const MATCH_FIELD_LABEL: Record<MatchField, string> = {
   name: "name",
@@ -456,6 +463,44 @@ function mergeUniqueMatches(
   return merged;
 }
 
+function DebouncedComponentSearchInput({
+  onCommit,
+  disabled,
+}: {
+  onCommit: (value: string) => void;
+  disabled: boolean;
+}) {
+  const [localValue, setLocalValue] = useState("");
+  const onCommitRef = useRef(onCommit);
+
+  useEffect(() => {
+    onCommitRef.current = onCommit;
+  }, [onCommit]);
+
+  useEffect(() => {
+    const timeout = window.setTimeout(() => {
+      onCommitRef.current(localValue);
+    }, SEARCH_QUERY_DEBOUNCE_MS);
+    return () => window.clearTimeout(timeout);
+  }, [localValue]);
+
+  const handleChange = (event: ChangeEvent<HTMLInputElement>) => {
+    setLocalValue(event.target.value);
+  };
+
+  return (
+    <Input
+      type="search"
+      placeholder="e.g. train_test_split, pandas, clean up my data"
+      value={localValue}
+      onChange={handleChange}
+      aria-label="Search components"
+      disabled={disabled}
+      className="flex-1"
+    />
+  );
+}
+
 function collectAllSourcedReferences({
   standardLibrary,
   publishedRefs,
@@ -506,6 +551,7 @@ export const DashboardComponentsV2View = () => {
   const { backendUrl, configured, available } = useBackend();
   const { config: aiConfig } = useAiProviderSettings();
   const [query, setQuery] = useState("");
+  const deferredQuery = useDeferredValue(query);
   const [disabledSourceKeys, setDisabledSourceKeys] = useState<string[]>([]);
 
   // Detail-pane selection lives in the URL so refreshes preserve it and the
@@ -725,7 +771,7 @@ export const DashboardComponentsV2View = () => {
     a.name.localeCompare(b.name),
   );
 
-  const trimmedQuery = query.trim();
+  const trimmedQuery = deferredQuery.trim();
 
   // One lexical pass at the wider AI-candidate limit; the display list is the
   // top slice of that same scored result, so we never score and sort the index
@@ -734,7 +780,9 @@ export const DashboardComponentsV2View = () => {
   const broadLexicalMatches: LexicalMatch[] =
     trimmedQuery.length === 0
       ? []
-      : lexicalSearch(filteredIndex, query, { limit: AI_CANDIDATE_LIMIT });
+      : lexicalSearch(filteredIndex, deferredQuery, {
+          limit: AI_CANDIDATE_LIMIT,
+        });
 
   const lexicalMatches: LexicalMatch[] = broadLexicalMatches.slice(
     0,
@@ -759,7 +807,7 @@ export const DashboardComponentsV2View = () => {
 
     const candidates: LexicalMatch[] = [];
     const seenDigests = new Set<string>();
-    const allLexicalMatches = lexicalSearch(filteredIndex, query, {
+    const allLexicalMatches = lexicalSearch(filteredIndex, deferredQuery, {
       limit: filteredIndex.length,
     });
     for (const match of allLexicalMatches) {
@@ -793,8 +841,8 @@ export const DashboardComponentsV2View = () => {
   const [isEmbeddingSearchPending, setIsEmbeddingSearchPending] =
     useState(false);
 
-  const handleQueryChange = (event: ChangeEvent<HTMLInputElement>) => {
-    setQuery(event.target.value);
+  const handleQueryCommit = (value: string) => {
+    setQuery(value);
     if (rerankedFor !== null) {
       setRerankedFor(null);
       setRerankBaseMatches([]);
@@ -823,7 +871,7 @@ export const DashboardComponentsV2View = () => {
   };
 
   const startAiSearch = async (matches: LexicalMatch[], limit: number) => {
-    const trimmed = query.trim();
+    const trimmed = trimmedQuery;
     if (trimmed.length === 0 || matches.length === 0) return;
 
     const embeddingMatches = aiConfig.apiBase.trim()
@@ -1071,14 +1119,9 @@ export const DashboardComponentsV2View = () => {
             </Paragraph>
           </BlockStack>
           <InlineStack gap="3" blockAlign="center" wrap="nowrap">
-            <Input
-              type="search"
-              placeholder="e.g. train_test_split, pandas, clean up my data"
-              value={query}
-              onChange={handleQueryChange}
-              aria-label="Search components"
+            <DebouncedComponentSearchInput
+              onCommit={handleQueryCommit}
               disabled={isLoadingLibrary || noLibraryData}
-              className="flex-1"
             />
             <Button
               variant="secondary"