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 DockerCommandLineCodeExecutor: the `timeout` argument (seconds allowed per code block execution) must be >= 1. Passing 0 or a negative number fails immediately at object construction, before any Docker interaction.

Source

Thrown at python/packages/autogen-ext/src/autogen_ext/code_executors/docker/_docker_code_executor.py:183

        bind_dir: Optional[Union[Path, str]] = None,
        auto_remove: bool = True,
        stop_container: bool = True,
        device_requests: Optional[List[DeviceRequest]] = None,
        functions: Sequence[
            Union[
                FunctionWithRequirements[Any, A],
                Callable[..., Any],
                FunctionWithRequirementsStr,
            ]
        ] = [],
        functions_module: str = "functions",
        extra_volumes: Optional[Dict[str, Dict[str, str]]] = None,
        extra_hosts: Optional[Dict[str, str]] = None,
        init_command: Optional[str] = None,
        delete_tmp_files: bool = False,
    ):
        if timeout < 1:
            raise ValueError("Timeout must be greater than or equal to 1.")

        # Handle working directory logic
        if work_dir is None:
            self._work_dir = None
        else:
            if isinstance(work_dir, str):
                work_dir = Path(work_dir)
            # Emit a deprecation warning if the user is using the current directory as working directory
            if work_dir.resolve() == Path.cwd().resolve():
                warnings.warn(
                    "Using the current directory as work_dir is deprecated.",
                    DeprecationWarning,
                    stacklevel=2,
                )
            self._work_dir = work_dir
            # Create the working directory if it doesn't exist
            self._work_dir.mkdir(exist_ok=True, parents=True)

View on GitHub (pinned to 027ecf0a37)

Solutions

1. Pass an explicit positive timeout: timeout=60 (the default)
2. Fix the upstream config so unset timeouts fall back to a default rather than 0: `timeout = cfg.timeout or 60`
3. Validate user-supplied config before constructing the executor

Example fix

# before
executor = DockerCommandLineCodeExecutor(timeout=cfg.timeout)  # cfg.timeout == 0

# after
executor = DockerCommandLineCodeExecutor(timeout=cfg.timeout if cfg.timeout and cfg.timeout >= 1 else 60)

def sane_timeout(cfg) -> int:
    t = cfg.get("timeout") or 60
    if not isinstance(t, int) or t < 1:
        raise ValueError(f"timeout must be >= 1, got {t!r}")
    return t

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

null

When it happens

Trigger: Instantiating DockerCommandLineCodeExecutor(timeout=0) or timeout=-5, or computing timeout from a config value that defaults to 0 (e.g. an unset settings field) and passing it straight through.

Common situations: Config-driven constructors where timeout is Optional[int] defaulting to 0/None and 0 is passed instead of a sensible default; copy-pasting from LocalCommandLineCodeExecutor examples that used fractional seconds; CI configs parsing 'timeout' from an empty env var as 0.

Understand the failure class

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

Related errors

• Unsupported config type {config.GetType()}
• Module name must be a valid Python identifier
• Messages should not be provided in options
• Invalid AgentId type: '{type}'. Must be alphanumeric (a-z, 0
• Maximum number of tool iterations must be greater than or eq

AI-assisted analysis of microsoft/autogen@027ecf0a37 (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2534228f7700b0c2. Report an issue: GitHub.