> For clean Markdown of any page, append .md to the page URL.
> For a complete documentation index, see https://docs.meetgail.com/platform/workflows/core-concepts/timeouts-retries/llms.txt.
> For AI client integration (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.), connect to the MCP server at https://docs.meetgail.com/_mcp/server.

# Timeouts & Retries

> What happens when a step is slow, hangs, or fails while a workflow runs.

Workflows talk to outside services, and outside services sometimes hang, hiccup,
or fail. Rather than let a single slow step leave a run stuck forever, every step
has built-in limits on how long it may take and how often it may try again. You
do not configure these; they are chosen for each type of step so it behaves
sensibly on its own.

## Every step has a time limit

Each step is given a deadline to finish its work. Most steps are expected to
finish within about a minute. Steps that do heavier work, like moving files or
downloading large amounts of data, are allowed several minutes. If a step runs
past its deadline, it is treated as a failure and handled by the retry rules
below.

## Steps retry a few times

If a step fails, it does not give up immediately. It waits a moment and tries
again, usually up to three attempts in total. This smooths over brief, temporary
problems like a service being momentarily unavailable. If every attempt fails,
the run stops with an error so you can see what went wrong.

## Some steps run only once

A few steps have an effect you would not want repeated, such as placing a phone
call, uploading a file, submitting a form, or adding a batch of contacts. To
avoid duplicates, these steps run a single time and do not retry. If one of them
fails, the run stops rather than risk doing the action twice.

> **Note**
>
> Steps that are designed to report a result rather than stop the run, like the
> [Check](/platform/workflows/node-reference/logic-and-flow/check) node deciding on an
> outcome, are not affected by these rules. They finish successfully and hand
> their result to the next step even when that result is a "no match" or a
> failure outcome you planned for.

## Cancelling a run

If you cancel a running workflow, in-flight work is stopped promptly rather than
being left to run out its full deadline. The run ends in a cancelled state and no
further steps execute.

## Long-running AI steps

The [AI steps](/platform/workflows/node-reference/ai/agent) work differently from ordinary
steps because the thinking they do can take longer. They have their own generous
time limit and will report a timeout if the work does not finish within it, so a
run never waits indefinitely on them either.

## Related

#### [Testing & Debugging](/platform/workflows/core-concepts/testing-debugging)

Watch a run proceed and see exactly where a step failed.

#### [Nodes & Connections](/platform/workflows/core-concepts/nodes-connections)

Understand how steps and their order shape a run.

> Documentation for Gail, the AI platform for financial services. Learn how to set up GailGPT and Gail Agent to automate customer communications for insurance, banking, and finance.