diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 48e926929..ecfd5f292 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -229,7 +229,7 @@ extension-developer-e2e: $(OPERATOR_SDK) $(KUSTOMIZE) #EXHELP Run extension crea
 	test/extension-developer-e2e/setup.sh $(OPERATOR_SDK) $(CONTAINER_RUNTIME) $(KUSTOMIZE) ${LOCAL_REGISTRY_HOST} ${CLUSTER_REGISTRY_HOST}
 	go test -count=1 -v ./test/extension-developer-e2e/...
 
-UNIT_TEST_DIRS := $(shell go list ./... | grep -v /test/)
+UNIT_TEST_DIRS := $(shell go list ./... | grep -vE "/test/|/testutils")
 COVERAGE_UNIT_DIR := $(ROOT_DIR)/coverage/unit
 
 .PHONY: envtest-k8s-bins #HELP Uses setup-envtest to download and install the binaries required to run ENVTEST-test based locally at the project/bin directory.
diff --git a/commitchecker.yaml b/commitchecker.yaml
index c6d5b4d5d..edb6c9cc0 100644
--- a/commitchecker.yaml
+++ b/commitchecker.yaml
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-expectedMergeBase: 3d6a33b60dab6aedec2b676eba3a7631d3961340
+expectedMergeBase: 3ad622560d7872e336943a22b8e70923d2dc9c07
 upstreamBranch: main
 upstreamOrg: operator-framework
 upstreamRepo: operator-controller
diff --git a/config/overlays/prometheus/prometheus_rule.yaml b/config/overlays/prometheus/prometheus_rule.yaml
index 5bd7e120b..b7e3fcdaf 100644
--- a/config/overlays/prometheus/prometheus_rule.yaml
+++ b/config/overlays/prometheus/prometheus_rule.yaml
@@ -57,3 +57,15 @@ spec:
       keep_firing_for: 1d
       annotations:
         description: "catalogd using high cpu resources for 5 minutes: {{ $value | printf \"%.2f\" }}%"
+    - alert: operator-controller-api-call-rate
+      expr: sum(rate(rest_client_requests_total{job=~"operator-controller-service"}[5m])) > 10
+      for: 5m
+      keep_firing_for: 1d
+      annotations:
+        description: "operator-controller making excessive API calls for 5 minutes: {{ $value | printf \"%.2f\" }}/sec"
+    - alert: catalogd-api-call-rate
+      expr: sum(rate(rest_client_requests_total{job=~"catalogd-service"}[5m])) > 5
+      for: 5m
+      keep_firing_for: 1d
+      annotations:
+        description: "catalogd making excessive API calls for 5 minutes: {{ $value | printf \"%.2f\" }}/sec"
diff --git a/test/utils/artifacts.go b/internal/shared/util/testutils/artifacts.go
similarity index 99%
rename from test/utils/artifacts.go
rename to internal/shared/util/testutils/artifacts.go
index acb523ade..485128c83 100644
--- a/test/utils/artifacts.go
+++ b/internal/shared/util/testutils/artifacts.go
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-package utils
+package testutils
 
 import (
 	"context"
diff --git a/test/utils/summary.go b/internal/shared/util/testutils/summary.go
similarity index 79%
rename from test/utils/summary.go
rename to internal/shared/util/testutils/summary.go
index d91ae3239..79328f9ef 100644
--- a/test/utils/summary.go
+++ b/internal/shared/util/testutils/summary.go
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-package utils
+package testutils
 
 import (
 	"context"
@@ -42,14 +42,16 @@ type xychart struct {
 }
 
 type githubSummary struct {
-	client api.Client
-	Pods   []string
+	client       api.Client
+	Pods         []string
+	alertsFiring bool
 }
 
 func NewSummary(c api.Client, pods ...string) githubSummary {
 	return githubSummary{
-		client: c,
-		Pods:   pods,
+		client:       c,
+		Pods:         pods,
+		alertsFiring: false,
 	}
 }
 
@@ -60,7 +62,7 @@ func NewSummary(c api.Client, pods ...string) githubSummary {
 // yLabel - Label of the Y axis i.e. "KB/s", "MB", etc.
 // scaler - Constant by which to scale the results. For instance, cpu usage is more human-readable
 // as "mCPU" vs "CPU", so we scale the results by a factor of 1,000.
-func (s githubSummary) PerformanceQuery(title, pod, query string, yLabel string, scaler float64) (string, error) {
+func (s *githubSummary) PerformanceQuery(title, pod, query, yLabel string, scaler float64) (string, error) {
 	v1api := v1.NewAPI(s.client)
 	ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), 10*time.Second)
 	defer cancel()
@@ -90,8 +92,9 @@ func (s githubSummary) PerformanceQuery(title, pod, query string, yLabel string,
 	formattedData := make([]string, 0)
 	// matrix does not allow [] access, so we just do one iteration for the single result
 	for _, metric := range matrix {
-		if len(metric.Values) < 1 {
-			return "", fmt.Errorf("expected at least one data point; got: %d", len(metric.Values))
+		if len(metric.Values) < 2 {
+			// A graph with one data point means something with the collection was wrong
+			return "", fmt.Errorf("expected at least two data points; got: %d", len(metric.Values))
 		}
 		for _, sample := range metric.Values {
 			floatSample := float64(sample.Value) * scaler
@@ -115,7 +118,7 @@ func (s githubSummary) PerformanceQuery(title, pod, query string, yLabel string,
 
 // Alerts queries the prometheus server for alerts and generates markdown output for anything found.
 // If no alerts are found, the alerts section will contain only "None." in the final output.
-func (s githubSummary) Alerts() (string, error) {
+func (s *githubSummary) Alerts() (string, error) {
 	v1api := v1.NewAPI(s.client)
 	ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(context.Background(), 10*time.Second)
 	defer cancel()
@@ -136,6 +139,7 @@ func (s githubSummary) Alerts() (string, error) {
 			switch a.State {
 			case v1.AlertStateFiring:
 				firingAlerts = append(firingAlerts, aConv)
+				s.alertsFiring = true
 			case v1.AlertStatePending:
 				pendingAlerts = append(pendingAlerts, aConv)
 				// Ignore AlertStateInactive; the alerts endpoint doesn't return them
@@ -172,28 +176,34 @@ func executeTemplate(templateFile string, obj any) (string, error) {
 // The markdown is template-driven; the summary methods are called from within the
 // template. This allows us to add or change queries (hopefully) without needing to
 // touch code. The summary will be output to a file supplied by the env target.
-func PrintSummary(envTarget string) error {
+func PrintSummary(path string) error {
+	if path == "" {
+		fmt.Printf("No summary output path specified; skipping")
+		return nil
+	}
+
 	client, err := api.NewClient(api.Config{
 		Address: defaultPromUrl,
 	})
 	if err != nil {
-		fmt.Printf("Error creating prometheus client: %v\n", err)
-		os.Exit(1)
+		fmt.Printf("warning: failed to initialize promQL client: %v", err)
+		return nil
 	}
 
 	summary := NewSummary(client, "operator-controller", "catalogd")
-	summaryMarkdown, err := executeTemplate(summaryTemplate, summary)
+	summaryMarkdown, err := executeTemplate(summaryTemplate, &summary)
 	if err != nil {
-		return err
+		fmt.Printf("warning: failed to generate e2e test summary: %v", err)
+		return nil
 	}
-	if path := os.Getenv(envTarget); path != "" {
-		err = os.WriteFile(path, []byte(summaryMarkdown), 0o600)
-		if err != nil {
-			return err
-		}
-		fmt.Printf("Test summary output to %s successful\n", envTarget)
-	} else {
-		fmt.Printf("No summary output specified; skipping")
+	err = os.WriteFile(path, []byte(summaryMarkdown), 0o600)
+	if err != nil {
+		fmt.Printf("warning: failed to write e2e test summary output to %s: %v", path, err)
+		return nil
+	}
+	fmt.Printf("Test summary output to %s successful\n", path)
+	if summary.alertsFiring {
+		return fmt.Errorf("performance alerts encountered during test run; please check e2e test summary for details")
 	}
 	return nil
 }
diff --git a/test/utils/templates/alert.md.tmpl b/internal/shared/util/testutils/templates/alert.md.tmpl
similarity index 100%
rename from test/utils/templates/alert.md.tmpl
rename to internal/shared/util/testutils/templates/alert.md.tmpl
diff --git a/test/utils/templates/mermaid_chart.md.tmpl b/internal/shared/util/testutils/templates/mermaid_chart.md.tmpl
similarity index 100%
rename from test/utils/templates/mermaid_chart.md.tmpl
rename to internal/shared/util/testutils/templates/mermaid_chart.md.tmpl
diff --git a/test/utils/templates/summary.md.tmpl b/internal/shared/util/testutils/templates/summary.md.tmpl
similarity index 74%
rename from test/utils/templates/summary.md.tmpl
rename to internal/shared/util/testutils/templates/summary.md.tmpl
index c094d49f3..b1372b874 100644
--- a/test/utils/templates/summary.md.tmpl
+++ b/internal/shared/util/testutils/templates/summary.md.tmpl
@@ -11,6 +11,13 @@
 
 #### CPU Usage
 {{$.PerformanceQuery "CPU Usage" $pod `rate(container_cpu_usage_seconds_total{pod=~"%s.*",container="manager"}[5m])[5m:]` "mCPU" 1000}}
+
+#### API Queries Total
+{{$.PerformanceQuery "API Queries Total" $pod `sum(rest_client_requests_total{job=~"%s.*"})[5m:]` "# queries" 1}}
+
+#### API Query Rate
+{{$.PerformanceQuery "API Queries/sec" $pod `sum(rate(rest_client_requests_total{job=~"%s.*"}[5m]))[5m:]` "per sec" 1}}
+
 {{end}}
 {{- end}}
 
diff --git a/test/utils/utils.go b/internal/shared/util/testutils/utils.go
similarity index 97%
rename from test/utils/utils.go
rename to internal/shared/util/testutils/utils.go
index db6d25a7f..94eb2d5b3 100644
--- a/test/utils/utils.go
+++ b/internal/shared/util/testutils/utils.go
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-package utils
+package testutils
 
 import (
 	"os/exec"
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 327eebf35..241ff2c8a 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 Babel==2.17.0
 beautifulsoup4==4.13.4
 certifi==2025.8.3
-charset-normalizer==3.4.2
+charset-normalizer==3.4.3
 click==8.1.8
 colorama==0.4.6
 cssselect==1.3.0
diff --git a/test/e2e/cluster_extension_install_test.go b/test/e2e/cluster_extension_install_test.go
index 3c9dcbc2a..7c070cb44 100644
--- a/test/e2e/cluster_extension_install_test.go
+++ b/test/e2e/cluster_extension_install_test.go
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ import (
 	"sigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime/pkg/client"
 
 	ocv1 "github.com/operator-framework/operator-controller/api/v1"
-	"github.com/operator-framework/operator-controller/test/utils"
+	utils "github.com/operator-framework/operator-controller/internal/shared/util/testutils"
 )
 
 const (
diff --git a/test/e2e/e2e_suite_test.go b/test/e2e/e2e_suite_test.go
index cf4f474eb..0bf84bec8 100644
--- a/test/e2e/e2e_suite_test.go
+++ b/test/e2e/e2e_suite_test.go
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ import (
 
 	ocv1 "github.com/operator-framework/operator-controller/api/v1"
 	"github.com/operator-framework/operator-controller/internal/operator-controller/scheme"
-	utils "github.com/operator-framework/operator-controller/test/utils"
+	utils "github.com/operator-framework/operator-controller/internal/shared/util/testutils"
 )
 
 var (
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ var (
 )
 
 const (
-	testSummaryOutputEnvVar = "GITHUB_STEP_SUMMARY"
+	testSummaryOutputEnvVar = "E2E_SUMMARY_OUTPUT"
 	testCatalogRefEnvVar    = "CATALOG_IMG"
 	testCatalogName         = "test-catalog"
 	latestImageTag          = "latest"
@@ -40,9 +40,16 @@ func TestMain(m *testing.M) {
 	utilruntime.Must(err)
 
 	res := m.Run()
-	err = utils.PrintSummary(testSummaryOutputEnvVar)
-	if err != nil {
-		fmt.Println("PrintSummary error", err)
+	path := os.Getenv(testSummaryOutputEnvVar)
+	if path == "" {
+		fmt.Printf("Note: E2E_SUMMARY_OUTPUT is unset; skipping summary generation")
+	} else {
+		err = utils.PrintSummary(path)
+		if err != nil {
+			// Fail the run if alerts are found
+			fmt.Printf("%v", err)
+			os.Exit(1)
+		}
 	}
 	os.Exit(res)
 }
diff --git a/test/e2e/metrics_test.go b/test/e2e/metrics_test.go
index 85908f4d5..a95f16c2c 100644
--- a/test/e2e/metrics_test.go
+++ b/test/e2e/metrics_test.go
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
 	"k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/rand"
 
-	"github.com/operator-framework/operator-controller/test/utils"
+	utils "github.com/operator-framework/operator-controller/internal/shared/util/testutils"
 )
 
 // TestOperatorControllerMetricsExportedEndpoint verifies that the metrics endpoint for the operator controller
diff --git a/test/e2e/network_policy_test.go b/test/e2e/network_policy_test.go
index 0f3979d23..00143df41 100644
--- a/test/e2e/network_policy_test.go
+++ b/test/e2e/network_policy_test.go
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ import (
 	"k8s.io/utils/ptr"
 	"sigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime/pkg/client"
 
-	"github.com/operator-framework/operator-controller/test/utils"
+	utils "github.com/operator-framework/operator-controller/internal/shared/util/testutils"
 )
 
 const (
diff --git a/test/experimental-e2e/experimental_e2e_test.go b/test/experimental-e2e/experimental_e2e_test.go
index 8ead64e45..39c16e97f 100644
--- a/test/experimental-e2e/experimental_e2e_test.go
+++ b/test/experimental-e2e/experimental_e2e_test.go
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ import (
 
 	ocv1 "github.com/operator-framework/operator-controller/api/v1"
 	"github.com/operator-framework/operator-controller/internal/operator-controller/scheme"
-	"github.com/operator-framework/operator-controller/test/utils"
+	utils "github.com/operator-framework/operator-controller/internal/shared/util/testutils"
 )
 
 const (
diff --git a/test/upgrade-e2e/post_upgrade_test.go b/test/upgrade-e2e/post_upgrade_test.go
index 221182bb6..b196db356 100644
--- a/test/upgrade-e2e/post_upgrade_test.go
+++ b/test/upgrade-e2e/post_upgrade_test.go
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ import (
 	"sigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime/pkg/client"
 
 	ocv1 "github.com/operator-framework/operator-controller/api/v1"
-	"github.com/operator-framework/operator-controller/test/utils"
+	utils "github.com/operator-framework/operator-controller/internal/shared/util/testutils"
 )
 
 const (