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Timeout errors
Last update:
May 18, 2026
Timeout errors occur when a request does not complete within configured time limits at the transport, protocol, or tool level.
Overview
Timeouts are a high-impact class of errors that can occur at multiple layers of the MCP interaction stack. In each case, the system remains reachable, but the request cannot be completed within the configured time constraints.
Timeouts are often intermittent and may be related to system load, slow external dependencies, or unusually large inputs.
Types of timeouts
Transport timeouts
- An HTTP request exceeds the configured socket or read timeout.
- An STDIO tool hangs or never returns output.
JSON-RPC or MCP-layer timeouts
- The MCP runtime waits for a response associated with a request ID and exceeds its internal timeout guard.
- The error may surface as a generic processing timeout or request timed out message.
Tool-level timeouts
- The tool enforces a maximum execution time for long-running operations, external API calls, or LLM requests.
- The tool returns a specific timeout error code or category, such as
TIMEOUT,LLM_TIMEOUT, orGATEWAY_TIMEOUT.
Recommended response
- Determine which timeouts should be user-visible and which are retryable.
- For user-visible timeouts, clearly inform the user that the operation took too long and allow them to retry or simplify the request.
- For idempotent operations, consider a limited number of retries with exponential backoff.
- Review and tune timeout configurations in:
- The ColdFusion MCP client transport settings.
- The MCP server configuration.
- Tool-specific timeout settings and service-level agreements (SLAs).
- For recurring or systematic timeouts (not isolated spikes), investigate:
- Input sizes, such as very large documents or datasets.
- Performance of downstream services and LLM providers.
- Whether the operation should be redesigned as an asynchronous or polling workflow instead of a single blocking request.
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