What causes "Test execution timed out after 60 seconds" in windmill-labs/windmill?

Open the run in the Runs view to see whether it eventually finished or is stuck, and inspect the slow step.

Test execution timed out after 60 seconds

Error message

Test execution timed out after 60 seconds

What it means

The copilot's test-run helper polls a script/flow test job and gives up after 60 seconds; on timeout it throws 'Test execution timed out after 60 seconds'. It also records a 'Test timed out' tool status with the message 'Execution timed out or failed to complete' so both user and model see the failure.

Source

Thrown at frontend/src/lib/components/copilot/chat/shared.ts:1603

				status: deriveChatJobStatus(fetchedJob),
				job: trimJob(fetchedJob)
			})
		} catch (error) {
			if (!detachEnabled && attempts >= maxAttempts) {
				throw error
			}
		}
	}

	if (!job) {
		if (detachEnabled) {
			return 'detached'
		}
		toolCallbacks.setToolStatus(toolId, {
			content: 'Test timed out',
			error: 'Execution timed out or failed to complete'
		})
		throw new Error('Test execution timed out after 60 seconds')
	}

	return job
}

// Helper function to extract code blocks from markdown text
export function extractCodeFromMarkdown(markdown: string): string[] {
	const codeBlocks: string[] = []

	// Matches: ```[language]\n[code]\n```
	const codeBlockRegex = /```(?:[a-z]+)?\n([\s\S]*?)```/g

	let match: RegExpExecArray | null = null
	while ((match = codeBlockRegex.exec(markdown)) !== null) {
		const code = match[1].trim()
		if (code) {
			codeBlocks.push(code)
		}

View on GitHub (pinned to e474e8803c)

Solutions

Open the run in the Runs view to see whether it eventually finished or is stuck, and inspect the slow step.
Shorten or optimize the tested code (add timeouts to external calls, remove sleeps) so it completes under 60s.
Check that a worker is running and the queue is not backed up (jobs stuck in 'waiting').
Re-run the test from the chat after fixing; if legitimately long-running, test the piece in isolation instead of the whole flow.
If the job never started, check backend logs for scheduler/worker errors.

Example fix

// before (code under test hangs)
const data = await fetch('https://slow-api.example.com') // >60s
// after
const data = await fetchWithTimeout('https://slow-api.example.com', 10_000)

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

// sanity-check the code under test before running
if (/while\s*\(\s*true\s*\)/.test(code)) console.warn('possible infinite loop; test may hit the 60s timeout')

Try / catch

try {
  await runTest(job)
} catch (e) {
  if (e.message === 'Test execution timed out after 60 seconds') {
    // inspect run status out-of-band; do not blind-retry until the slow step is fixed
  }
}

Prevention

Add explicit timeouts to external HTTP/DB calls inside tested scripts.
Keep test payloads small; test heavy logic in isolation.
Ensure workers are running and the queue is healthy before long test runs.
Avoid sleeps and retry loops in code intended for quick test iterations.

When it happens

Trigger: A test run was queued successfully but the job had not reached a terminal state (success/failure) within the 60-second window — long-running script code, an infinite loop, a flow step waiting on a slow external API, a worker not picking up the job, or the poll loop's detached/abort branch being hit.

Common situations: Script calls a slow third-party API and exceeds 60s; flow contains a sleep or retry step; no worker available for the runtimes so the job stays queued; heavy queue backlog on a busy instance; debugging code with an accidental while(true).

Understand the failure class

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

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of windmill-labs/windmill@e474e8803c (2026-09-03). Data as JSON: /api/errors/4c770fb5bf8a75ed. Report an issue: GitHub.