Timeouts
Understanding the different timeout limits that apply to your flows and how they affect execution.
Key Point
Flow execution itself has no timeout. Flows will run until completion regardless of how long they take. However, HTTP connections have timeouts that affect webhook responses and external requests.
Server Request Timeout
The server request timeout is the maximum time allowed for a complete HTTP request-response cycle. This applies to all requests entering or leaving the Serenities AI system.
Maximum time for any request-response cycle
What This Timeout Covers
Incoming Requests
When external services (n8n, Make, Zapier) call your webhooks
Outgoing Requests
When your flows make HTTP requests to external APIs
Response Time
Time from request received until response is sent back
Important for Webhook Integrations
If you're calling Serenities AI webhooks from external platforms, ensure their HTTP timeout settings are also configured appropriately. The connection will timeout based on whichever limit is reached first - yours or theirs.
Node-Level Timeouts
Individual nodes within your flows have their own timeout limits. These are separate from the server timeout and apply to specific operations.
Time to wait for external API responses
Hard limit - cannot be increased
Intentional delay between steps
Flow Execution
Flow execution itself has no timeout limit. Once a flow starts, it will continue running until all nodes have completed, regardless of total duration.
This is by design to support long-running processes like:
Webhook Response Considerations
When using webhooks that require a response (synchronous webhooks), the calling service must wait for your flow to complete before receiving the response.
Long-Running Flows
If your flow takes longer than the caller's timeout setting, they will receive a timeout error even though your flow continues to execute successfully. Consider these alternatives:
Asynchronous Patterns
Return immediately and use a callback webhook to send results
Polling
Return a job ID and let the caller poll for results
Fire-and-Forget
Use webhooks that don't require a response
Troubleshooting Timeouts
504 Gateway Timeout
If you receive a 504 Gateway Timeout error when calling a webhook:
The flow may have completed successfully even if the response timed out
Increase the HTTP request timeout in your automation platform
For flows longer than a few minutes, use asynchronous webhook patterns
Node Timeout Errors
If a specific node times out:
- HTTP Request:Check if the external API is slow or unresponsive
- Code node:Optimize your code or break it into smaller chunks (30 sec max)