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Activity Timeouts - Go SDK

How to set Activity timeouts​

Each Activity timeout controls the maximum duration of a different aspect of an Activity Execution.

The following timeouts are available in the Activity Options.

An Activity Execution must have either the Start-To-Close or the Schedule-To-Close Timeout set.

To set an Activity Timeout in Go, create an instance of ActivityOptions from the go.temporal.io/sdk/workflow package, set the Activity Timeout field, and then use the WithActivityOptions() API to apply the options to the instance of workflow.Context.

Available timeouts are:

  • StartToCloseTimeout
  • ScheduleToClose
  • ScheduleToStartTimeout
activityoptions := workflow.ActivityOptions{
  // Set Activity Timeout duration
  ScheduleToCloseTimeout: 10 * time.Second,
  // StartToCloseTimeout: 10 * time.Second,
  // ScheduleToStartTimeout: 10 * time.Second,
}
ctx = workflow.WithActivityOptions(ctx, activityoptions)
var yourActivityResult YourActivityResult
err = workflow.ExecuteActivity(ctx, YourActivityDefinition, yourActivityParam).Get(ctx, &yourActivityResult)
if err != nil {
  // ...
}

Set a custom Activity Retry Policy​

A Retry Policy works in cooperation with the timeouts to provide fine controls to optimize the execution experience.

Activity Executions are automatically associated with a default Retry Policy if a custom one is not provided.

To set a RetryPolicy, create an instance of ActivityOptions from the go.temporal.io/sdk/workflow package, set the RetryPolicy field, and then use the WithActivityOptions() API to apply the options to the instance of workflow.Context.

retrypolicy := &temporal.RetryPolicy{
  InitialInterval:    time.Second,
  BackoffCoefficient: 2.0,
  MaximumInterval:    time.Second * 100, // 100 * InitialInterval
  MaximumAttempts: 0, // Unlimited
  NonRetryableErrorTypes: []string, // empty
}

Providing a Retry Policy here is a customization, and overwrites individual Field defaults.

retrypolicy := &temporal.RetryPolicy{
  InitialInterval:    time.Second,
  BackoffCoefficient: 2.0,
  MaximumInterval:    time.Second * 100,
}

activityoptions := workflow.ActivityOptions{
  RetryPolicy: retrypolicy,
}
ctx = workflow.WithActivityOptions(ctx, activityoptions)
var yourActivityResult YourActivityResult
err = workflow.ExecuteActivity(ctx, YourActivityDefinition, yourActivityParam).Get(ctx, &yourActivityResult)
if err != nil {
  // ...
}

Overriding the retry interval with Next Retry Delay​

You may return an Application Failure with the NextRetryDelay field set. This value will replace and override whatever the Retry interval would be on the Retry Policy.

For example, if in an Activity, you want to base the interval on the number of attempts:

attempt := activity.GetInfo(ctx).Attempt;

return temporal.NewApplicationErrorWithOptions(fmt.Sprintf("Something bad happened on attempt %d", attempt), "NextDelay", temporal.ApplicationErrorOptions{
  NextRetryDelay: 3 * time.Second * delay,
})

Activity Heartbeats​

An Activity Heartbeat is a ping from the Worker Process that is executing the Activity to the Temporal Service. Each Heartbeat informs the Temporal Service that the Activity Execution is making progress and the Worker has not crashed. If the Temporal Service does not receive a Heartbeat within a Heartbeat Timeout time period, the Activity will be considered failed and another Activity Task Execution may be scheduled according to the Retry Policy.

Heartbeats may not always be sent to the Temporal Service—they may be throttled by the Worker.

Activity Cancellations are delivered to Activities from the Temporal Service when they Heartbeat. Activities that don't Heartbeat can't receive a Cancellation. Heartbeat throttling may lead to Cancellation getting delivered later than expected.

Heartbeats can contain a details field describing the Activity's current progress. If an Activity gets retried, the Activity can access the details from the last Heartbeat that was sent to the Temporal Service.

To Heartbeat in an Activity in Go, use the RecordHeartbeat API.

import (
    // ...
    "go.temporal.io/sdk/workflow"
    // ...
)

func YourActivityDefinition(ctx, YourActivityDefinitionParam) (YourActivityDefinitionResult, error) {
    // ...
    activity.RecordHeartbeat(ctx, details)
    // ...
}

When an Activity Task Execution times out due to a missed Heartbeat, the last value of the details variable above is returned to the calling Workflow in the details field of TimeoutError with TimeoutType set to Heartbeat.

You can also Heartbeat an Activity from an external source:

// The client is a heavyweight object that should be created once per process.
temporalClient, err := client.Dial(client.Options{})
// Record heartbeat.
err := temporalClient.RecordActivityHeartbeat(ctx, taskToken, details)

The parameters of the RecordActivityHeartbeat function are:

  • taskToken: The value of the binary TaskToken field of the ActivityInfo struct retrieved inside the Activity.
  • details: The serializable payload containing progress information.

If an Activity Execution Heartbeats its progress before it failed, the retry attempt will have access to the progress information, so that the Activity Execution can resume from the failed state. Here's an example of how this can be implemented:

func SampleActivity(ctx context.Context, inputArg InputParams) error {
    startIdx := inputArg.StartIndex
    if activity.HasHeartbeatDetails(ctx) {
        // Recover from finished progress.
        var finishedIndex int
        if err := activity.GetHeartbeatDetails(ctx, &finishedIndex); err == nil {
            startIdx = finishedIndex + 1 // Start from next one.
        }
    }

    // Normal Activity logic...
    for i:=startIdx; i<inputArg.EndIdx; i++ {
        // Code for processing item i goes here...
        activity.RecordHeartbeat(ctx, i) // Report progress.
    }
}

Set a Heartbeat Timeout​

A Heartbeat Timeout works in conjunction with Activity Heartbeats.

To set a Heartbeat Timeout, Create an instance of ActivityOptions from the go.temporal.io/sdk/workflow package, set the HeartbeatTimeout field, and then use the WithActivityOptions() API to apply the options to the instance of workflow.Context.

activityoptions := workflow.ActivityOptions{
  HeartbeatTimeout: 10 * time.Second,
}
ctx = workflow.WithActivityOptions(ctx, activityoptions)
var yourActivityResult YourActivityResult
err = workflow.ExecuteActivity(ctx, YourActivityDefinition, yourActivityParam).Get(ctx, &yourActivityResult)
if err != nil {
  // ...
}