Timeout Strategy

About 296 wordsLess than 1 minute

Timeout Strategy describes the execution limits for pipelines and jobs; they are terminated automatically once exceeded.

When to use: when diagnosing why a job was terminated, or when sizing build duration limits — for example raising the timeout for a long-running job, releasing resources earlier for a stuck job, or checking the default no-output timeout.

Pipeline Timeout

The maximum execution time for a pipeline is 20 hours. After 20 hours, the pipeline container will be automatically destroyed.

Job Timeout

A job can customize its timeout by declaring timeout. If not declared, the following default values apply.

No Output Timeout

If a Job has no output for 10 minutes continuously, a timeout will be triggered. If timeout is declared, the no-output timeout matches the configured value.

Maximum Timeout Duration

A Job defaults to a maximum execution of 2 hours. If timeout is declared, that value is used instead, up to a maximum of 12 hours.

Configuration Example

The following example triggers a pipeline on the push event and sets the timeout of a job to 30 minutes:

.cnb.yml
main:
  push:
    - stages:
        - name: build
          image: node:20
          script: |
            npm install
            npm run build
          timeout: 30m # This job runs for at most 30 minutes

After declaring timeout, this job:

triggers a no-output timeout after 30 minutes of inactivity (replacing the default 10 minutes);
runs for at most 30 minutes and then terminates automatically.

Tips

timeout supports units such as ms, s, m, and h. See grammar for more details.