Files
antigravity-skills-reference/skills/dbos-golang/references/workflow-timeout.md
Max dml 7e5abd504f feat: add DBOS skills for TypeScript, Python, and Go (#94)
Add three DBOS SDK skills with reference documentation for building
reliable, fault-tolerant applications with durable workflows.

Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-02-17 23:26:51 +01:00

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1.3 KiB
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---
title: Set Workflow Timeouts
impact: CRITICAL
impactDescription: Prevents workflows from running indefinitely
tags: workflow, timeout, cancellation, duration
---
## Set Workflow Timeouts
Set a timeout for a workflow by using Go's `context.WithTimeout` or `dbos.WithTimeout` on the DBOS context. When the timeout expires, the workflow and all its children are cancelled.
**Incorrect (no timeout for potentially long workflow):**
```go
// No timeout - could run indefinitely
handle, err := dbos.RunWorkflow(ctx, processTask, "data")
```
**Correct (with timeout):**
```go
// Create a context with a 5-minute timeout
timedCtx, cancel := dbos.WithTimeout(ctx, 5*time.Minute)
defer cancel()
handle, err := dbos.RunWorkflow(timedCtx, processTask, "data")
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
```
Key timeout behaviors:
- Timeouts are **start-to-completion**: the timeout begins when the workflow starts execution, not when it's enqueued
- Timeouts are **durable**: they persist across restarts, so workflows can have very long timeouts (hours, days, weeks)
- Cancellation happens at the **beginning of the next step** - the current step completes first
- Cancelling a workflow also cancels all **child workflows**
Reference: [Workflow Timeouts](https://docs.dbos.dev/golang/tutorials/workflow-tutorial#workflow-timeouts)