diff --git a/services/comms/scripts/atlasbot/bot.py b/services/comms/scripts/atlasbot/bot.py
index d9883747..ef82775d 100644
--- a/services/comms/scripts/atlasbot/bot.py
+++ b/services/comms/scripts/atlasbot/bot.py
@@ -34,6 +34,9 @@ OLLAMA_TIMEOUT_SEC = float(os.environ.get("OLLAMA_TIMEOUT_SEC", "480"))
 ATLASBOT_HTTP_PORT = int(os.environ.get("ATLASBOT_HTTP_PORT", "8090"))
 ATLASBOT_INTERNAL_TOKEN = os.environ.get("ATLASBOT_INTERNAL_TOKEN") or os.environ.get("CHAT_API_HOMEPAGE", "")
 SNAPSHOT_TTL_SEC = int(os.environ.get("ATLASBOT_SNAPSHOT_TTL_SEC", "30"))
+LOGIN_RETRY_CAP_SEC = int(os.environ.get("ATLASBOT_LOGIN_RETRY_CAP_SEC", "60"))
+# 0 means retry forever (default); useful during startup when MAS/Synapse ordering is still converging.
+LOGIN_MAX_ATTEMPTS = int(os.environ.get("ATLASBOT_LOGIN_MAX_ATTEMPTS", "0"))
 
 KB_DIR = os.environ.get("KB_DIR", "")
 VM_URL = os.environ.get("VM_URL", "http://victoria-metrics-single-server.monitoring.svc.cluster.local:8428")
@@ -5182,14 +5185,21 @@ def sync_loop(token: str, room_id: str, *, account_user: str, default_mode: str)
                 history[hist_key] = history[hist_key][-80:]
 
 def login_with_retry(user: str, password: str):
-    last_err = None
-    for attempt in range(10):
+    attempts = 0
+    while True:
         try:
             return login(user, password)
         except Exception as exc:  # noqa: BLE001
-            last_err = exc
-            time.sleep(min(30, 2 ** attempt))
-    raise last_err
+            attempts += 1
+            if LOGIN_MAX_ATTEMPTS > 0 and attempts >= LOGIN_MAX_ATTEMPTS:
+                raise
+            delay = min(LOGIN_RETRY_CAP_SEC, 2 ** min(attempts, 8))
+            print(
+                f"atlasbot login retry for {normalize_user_id(user)} "
+                f"(attempt={attempts}, delay={delay}s): {exc}",
+                flush=True,
+            )
+            time.sleep(delay)
 
 def _bot_accounts() -> list[dict[str, str]]:
     accounts: list[dict[str, str]] = []