microsoft/autogen · error · ValueError

Timeout must be greater than or equal to 1.

Error message

Timeout must be greater than or equal to 1.

What it means

Constructor validation in JupyterCodeExecutor: the timeout (seconds per cell execution, default 60) must be >= 1. Zero or negative values raise ValueError immediately; None is not accepted here.

Source

Thrown at python/packages/autogen-ext/src/autogen_ext/code_executors/jupyter/_jupyter_code_executor.py:146

        timeout (int): The timeout for code execution, by default 60.
        output_dir (Path): The directory to save output files, by default a temporary directory.


    .. note::
        Using the current directory (".") as output directory is deprecated. Using it will raise a deprecation warning.
    """

    component_config_schema = JupyterCodeExecutorConfig
    component_provider_override = "autogen_ext.code_executors.jupyter.JupyterCodeExecutor"

    def __init__(
        self,
        kernel_name: str = "python3",
        timeout: int = 60,
        output_dir: Optional[Union[Path, str]] = None,
    ):
        if timeout < 1:
            raise ValueError("Timeout must be greater than or equal to 1.")

        self._output_dir: Path = Path(tempfile.mkdtemp()) if output_dir is None else Path(output_dir)
        self._output_dir.mkdir(exist_ok=True, parents=True)

        self._temp_dir: Optional[tempfile.TemporaryDirectory[str]] = None
        self._temp_dir_path: Optional[Path] = None

        self._started = False

        self._kernel_name = kernel_name
        self._timeout = timeout

        self._client: Optional[NotebookClient] = None
        self.kernel_context: Optional[AbstractAsyncContextManager[None]] = None

    async def execute_code_blocks(
        self, code_blocks: list[CodeBlock], cancellation_token: CancellationToken
    ) -> JupyterCodeResult:

View on GitHub (pinned to 027ecf0a37)

Solutions

1. Pass timeout >= 1 seconds (default 60 is usually fine).
2. Sanitize external config: timeout = max(1, int(raw_value)) before constructing.
3. Confirm you are not passing None where an int is required.

Example fix

# before
executor = JupyterCodeExecutor(timeout=0)

# after
executor = JupyterCodeExecutor(timeout=60)

timeout = int(os.getenv("EXEC_TIMEOUT", "60")) or 60
timeout = max(1, timeout)

def is_valid_timeout(t: object) -> bool:
    return isinstance(t, int) and not isinstance(t, bool) and t >= 1

try:
    JupyterCodeExecutor(timeout=t)
except ValueError as e:
    if "Timeout" in str(e):
        executor = JupyterCodeExecutor(timeout=max(1, int(t)))
    else:
        raise

When it happens

Trigger: JupyterCodeExecutor(timeout=0) or a negative number, typically from unparsed config values, env vars defaulting to 0, or arithmetic that computes a non-positive timeout.

Common situations: int(os.getenv('TIMEOUT', 0)) when the var is unset, configs migrated from millisecond semantics, tests passing timeout=0 as a placeholder, computed timeouts that underflow to 0.

Understand the failure class

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

Related errors

• Timeout must be greater than or equal to 1.
• jupyter_server must be a JupyterConnectable or JupyterConnec
• Unsupported config type {config.GetType()}
• Messages should not be provided in options
• The agent name must be a valid Python identifier.

AI-assisted analysis of microsoft/autogen@027ecf0a37 (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/12f65a7360282e69. Report an issue: GitHub.