Use Timeouts to Avoid Stuck Executions

By default, the Amazon States Language doesn't set timeouts in state machine definitions. Without an explicit timeout, Step Functions often relies solely on a response from an activity worker to know that a task is complete. If something goes wrong and TimeoutSeconds isn't specified, an execution is stuck waiting for a response that will never come.

To avoid this, specify a reasonable timeout when you create a task in your state machine. For example:

"ActivityState": {
  "Type": "Task",
  "Resource": "arn:aws:states:us-east-1:123456789012:activity:HelloWorld",
  "TimeoutSeconds": 300,
  "HeartbeatSeconds": 60,
  "Next": "NextState"
}

For more information, see Task in the Amazon States Language documentation.