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.
You can set a timeout for your state machine using the TimeoutSeconds
field in your Amazon States Language definition. For more information, see State Machine Structure.