diff --git a/.github/workflows/component-tests.yaml b/.github/workflows/component-tests.yaml
index b46c571537..182c15d445 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/component-tests.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/component-tests.yaml
@@ -153,8 +153,11 @@ jobs:
           kubectl wait --for=condition=Ready pod -l app.kubernetes.io/name=prometheus -n monitoring --timeout=300s
       - name: Install Node Agent Chart
         run: |
-          STORAGE_TAG=$(./tests/scripts/storage-tag.sh)
-          echo "Storage tag that will be used: ${STORAGE_TAG}"
+          # EXPERIMENT: validating kubescape/storage#397 (sharded single-writer
+          # fix) with higher shard/pool headroom before merge. Pins storage to
+          # a manually-built test image. Do not merge this override.
+          STORAGE_TAG=test-sharded-writer-397b
+          echo "Storage tag that will be used: ${STORAGE_TAG} (EXPERIMENT override)"
           helm upgrade --install kubescape ./tests/chart --set clusterName=`kubectl config current-context` --set nodeAgent.image.tag=${{ needs.build-and-push-image.outputs.image_tag }} --set nodeAgent.image.repository=${{ needs.build-and-push-image.outputs.image_repo }} --set storage.image.tag=${STORAGE_TAG} -n kubescape --create-namespace --wait --timeout 10m --debug
           # Check that the node-agent pod is running
           kubectl wait --for=condition=Ready pod -l app.kubernetes.io/name=node-agent -n kubescape --timeout=600s
diff --git a/tests/chart/templates/storage/configmap.yaml b/tests/chart/templates/storage/configmap.yaml
index 0dbf866090..0e1809ef1d 100644
--- a/tests/chart/templates/storage/configmap.yaml
+++ b/tests/chart/templates/storage/configmap.yaml
@@ -9,5 +9,7 @@ metadata:
 data:
   config.json: |
     {
-      "cleanupInterval": "{{ .Values.storage.cleanupInterval }}"
+      "cleanupInterval": "{{ .Values.storage.cleanupInterval }}",
+      "singleWriterShards": 16,
+      "sqlitePoolSize": 24
     }