What causes "Seedream task timed out after {300}s" in calesthio/OpenMontage?

Retry — the task often completes server-side; check the fal dashboard by request_id before resubmitting to avoid paying twice

calesthio/OpenMontage · error · RuntimeError

Seedream task timed out after {300}s

Error message

Seedream task timed out after {300}s

What it means

Raised when the Seedream status loop accumulates 300 seconds (polling every 10s) without reaching COMPLETED, FAILED, or CANCELLED. The task stays IN_PROGRESS/QUEUED past the hard-coded 5-minute budget, so the tool gives up client-side even though the task may still finish server-side.

Source

Thrown at tools/graphics/seedream_image.py:222

                    status_url,
                    headers=headers,
                    timeout=30,
                )
                status_resp.raise_for_status()
                status_data = status_resp.json()
                status = status_data.get("status")

                if status == "COMPLETED":
                    break
                elif status in ("FAILED", "CANCELLED"):
                    error_msg = status_data.get("error", "Unknown error")
                    raise RuntimeError(f"Seedream task {status}: {error_msg}")

                time.sleep(10)
                elapsed += 10

            if elapsed >= 300:
                raise RuntimeError(
                    f"Seedream task timed out after {300}s"
                )

            result_resp = requests.get(
                f"https://queue.fal.run/bytedance/seedream/requests/"
                f"{request_id}",
                headers=headers,
                timeout=30,
            )
            result_resp.raise_for_status()
            result_data = result_resp.json()

            images = result_data.get("images", [])
            if not images:
                raise RuntimeError("Seedream completed but no images returned")

            ext = inputs.get("output_format", "jpeg")
            expected_paths = self._output_paths(

View on GitHub (pinned to 95e1c3d0ab)

Solutions

Retry — the task often completes server-side; check the fal dashboard by request_id before resubmitting to avoid paying twice
Reduce work per request (fewer images, lower resolution)
Raise the 300s budget in seedream_image.py if long queues are normal for you
Stagger batch submissions to avoid self-inflicted queueing

Example fix

// before
while elapsed < 300:
// after
budget = float(inputs.get("timeout", 300))
while elapsed < budget:

Defensive patterns

Strategy: retry

Validate before calling

null

Try / catch

try:
    return seedream_run(inputs)
except RuntimeError as e:
    if "timed out" in str(e):
        # task may still finish server-side: check status by request_id
        # before resubmitting (avoid double billing)
        return check_or_resubmit_last_request()

Prevention

Raise the 300s budget or expose it as an input for long jobs
Reduce images/resolution per request to cut queue+render time
Stagger batches; poll the fal dashboard by request_id before resubmitting

When it happens

Trigger: High queue load on fal.run; very large image counts or max-resolution requests; polling started right after a cold model start. Note the budget is fixed (300s), not derived from a timeout input.

Common situations: Peak-hour queues; batch jobs submitting many Seedream tasks at once; long generation settings (multiple images at 2K+).

Understand the failure class

Timeouts: ETIMEDOUT, deadlines, and hung requests — what actually expires when a request times out.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of calesthio/OpenMontage@95e1c3d0ab (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5933df7b6d5a263b. Report an issue: GitHub.