agent timed out when agent tried to run great expectations checkpoint on full warehouse scan

TL;DR

Stop scanning the full warehouse in one checkpoint run: give the agent a bounded batch, such as the latest partition or a sampled batch with explicit sampling parameters, checkpoint progress per expectation, and raise the run timeout only after the batch is bounded. A checkpoint that must finish inside an agent timeout has to be sized to the timeout, not the other way round.

agent timed out when agent tried to run great expectations checkpoint on full warehouse scan

Use this when

• The check or run fails with this symptom: the agent's checkpoint run times out before validation completes.
• You are working on an agent running a Great Expectations checkpoint that times out on a full scan and the failure repeats on the same data or configuration.
• You need the failing rows, rule, or stage isolated before changing thresholds or code.

Not for this skill when

• A human-run checkpoint with no agent timeout, where batch sizing is a performance concern rather than a failure instead.
• The error text names a different tool, stage, or root cause. Match the verbatim error first and use that skill.

Steps

1. Record the batch the checkpoint tried to load: table size, partition range, and whether a filter or sampler was applied. Verify: the attempted batch scope is documented
2. Change the agent's run plan to validate the latest partition or a defined sample, passing batch parameters explicitly instead of the whole table. Verify: the agent's next run uses a bounded batch
3. Add per-expectation progress logging so a timeout leaves a record of what completed and what did not. Verify: progress is recorded per expectation during the run
4. Set the agent timeout from a measured run on the bounded batch, with headroom, rather than a global default. Verify: the timeout is derived from a measured bounded run
5. Run the bounded checkpoint end to end inside the timeout and confirm results are stored for every expectation. Verify: the checkpoint completes and all results are stored

Variant phrasings

agent timed out great expectations checkpoint full scan

The verbatim agent-checkpoint phrasing.

great expectations checkpoint too slow partition batch

The partitioning phrasing for bounded batches.

agent checkpoint timeout sampled validation run

The sampling phrasing for representative batches.

Compatibility: Great Expectations checkpoints run by an agent on warehouse-scale tables

Why it happens

Checkpoints validate whatever batch they are handed, and an agent that hands over an entire warehouse table turns a validation job into a full scan. Agent runtimes enforce wall-clock limits that batch warehouse jobs do not, so the unbounded batch and the fixed timeout collide predictably.

Edge cases / pitfalls

• Sampling must be deterministic for a given batch so reruns compare like with like.
• Keep one periodic full-table validation outside the agent loop so sampling never becomes the only coverage.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_XZK10pUOkQggEkwAoKpJ0A