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[workshop-sync] workshop/22-error-handling-and-resilience.md: unsupported claim about enterprise timeout override policy #3189

Description

@github-actions

Workshop file reviewed

workshop/22-error-handling-and-resilience.md

Problem

The "Set a timeout" section makes a specific, unsupported claim about enterprise policy behavior:

"On GitHub Enterprise Server (GHES) and GitHub Enterprise Cloud (GHEC), administrators can set a maximum job timeout at the organisation or enterprise level. When that policy is more restrictive than your timeout-minutes value, the enterprise limit takes precedence and the workflow job will be cancelled at the admin-set threshold."

No gh-aw reference documentation (including the linked rate-limiting-controls.md / Timeouts section) describes an org- or enterprise-level "maximum job timeout" policy that overrides timeout-minutes. The reference (syntax-core.md) only documents that timeout-minutes bounds the agentic_execution step (default 20 minutes, or ${{ vars.GH_AW_DEFAULT_TIMEOUT_MINUTES }}), with other jobs defaulting to the standard GitHub Actions platform limit of 360 minutes. There is no mention of a configurable enterprise/org-level override of this value.

Current correct behaviour

Per .github/aw/syntax-core.md:

timeout-minutes: - Agent execution step timeout in minutes (integer or GitHub Actions expression, defaults to ${{ vars.GH_AW_DEFAULT_TIMEOUT_MINUTES }} or 20 minutes; custom and safe-output jobs use the GitHub Actions platform default of 360 minutes unless explicitly set). It bounds the agentic_execution step only.

There's no documented enterprise/org "maximum job timeout" policy that takes precedence over a workflow's timeout-minutes value.

Suggested fix

Remove the specific claim about GHES/GHEC admin-set maximum job timeouts overriding timeout-minutes, or soften it to a general, unverifiable caution such as: "Organization-level GitHub Actions policies may also affect job duration in enterprise environments — check with your administrator if your workflow behaves unexpectedly." Avoid asserting a specific override mechanism unless it can be cited from gh-aw or GitHub Actions documentation.

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  • expires on Sep 11, 2026, 7:42 PM UTC

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