--- title: "Complete the fixture before its timeout fires" description: "Exercise the event that advances the test, so it stops waiting on the timer that rescues it." url: https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/techniques/finish-fixtures-before-timeout canonicalUrl: https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/techniques/finish-fixtures-before-timeout --- # Complete the fixture before its timeout fires Exercise the event that advances the test, so it stops waiting on the timer that rescues it. ## How to choose an approach This technique currently has one documented company example. Validate its prerequisites, tradeoffs and original CI environment against your repository before adapting it. - **[Uber](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/uber#finish-fixtures-before-timeout)**: Use it when Tests regularly spend a fixed interval waiting for an operation the fixture could complete immediately. Check before adopting: Confirm the test is about the completion path, keep dedicated timeout tests, and update event histories when completion adds events. ## Apply this technique ````text Evaluate and apply this CI technique to my repository: Complete the fixture before its timeout fires. Exercise the event that advances the test, so it stops waiting on the timer that rescues it. Read the technique and its source-backed company examples: https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/techniques/finish-fixtures-before-timeout.md Inspect this repository’s CI workflows, build and test commands, dependencies, and recent run timings. Identify where this technique applies and explain the expected benefit using this repository’s evidence. Measure a baseline from recent comparable runs: elapsed time, queue time, runner minutes and failures where available. If data is unavailable, say what cannot be measured. Compare relevant company approaches, checking prerequisites, platform differences and tradeoffs. Rank applicable options by evidence, fit and measurable opportunity; do not present company results as predictions for this repo. Recommend the smallest safe change, show what checks and fallback paths remain, and ASK ME WHICH CHANGE TO APPROVE BEFORE EDITING ANY FILES. Only after approval, work on a new feature branch, make one reversible change, and open a reviewable pull request. Never merge or push to a default or protected branch. Keep required checks, test coverage, deployment and release behavior intact. Validate the change and compare equivalent runs where possible; report limitations and what should be monitored after merge. ```` ## How Uber used this technique Read what Uber changed and follow the original sources. ### Uber: Complete the fixture before its timeout fires Cadence integration tests polled the foreign workflow's activity, so the next decision waited for the original activity to time out. The fix completes the original workflow's activity and updates expected event IDs for the extra ActivityStarted event. OPT19 is adapted to an accidental activity timeout. Evidence: Source PR/commit evidence The author identifies a 10-second wait in each affected test. ([Source](https://github.com/cadence-workflow/cadence/pull/8290)) Use it when: Tests regularly spend a fixed interval waiting for an operation the fixture could complete immediately. Before applying it: Confirm the test is about the completion path, keep dedicated timeout tests, and update event histories when completion adds events. [Read more in the Uber playbook](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/uber#finish-fixtures-before-timeout) [Primary source](https://github.com/cadence-workflow/cadence/pull/8290) ## CI optimization is continuous work. Apply this technique yourself, or use StarSling Runners for faster GitHub Actions and optional agent-driven optimization PRs, which teams on eligible paid plans can turn on. [Get self-improving CI](https://starsling.dev/products/runners) ## Related techniques ### [Shorten deliberate test waits](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/techniques/shorten-proven-test-waits) Reduce waits whose timing requirements are known, preserving the timeout or consistency behavior the test is intended to cover. 2 implementations · 2 companies (Anthropic, Mastra) ### [Wait for observable readiness instead of sleeping](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/techniques/poll-readiness) Poll the service or state the test actually needs, with a bounded timeout and useful failure output. 4 implementations · 3 companies (Mastra, Stripe, Uber) ### [Balance test work across shards](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/techniques/balance-test-shards) Use measured runtimes or smaller test files to reduce the slowest shard, which determines when the suite finishes. 4 implementations · 4 companies (Linear, OpenAI, Ramp, Stripe) ## Company Playbooks ### [Anthropic](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/anthropic) Run only affected tests ### [DoorDash](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/doordash) Run build and test in parallel, sharded across CI agents ### [Linear](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/linear) Benchmark the same job on faster hardware ### [Mastra](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/mastra) StarSling runners for the slowest test workflow ### [OpenAI](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/openai) Rank CI fixes by the minutes they save ### [Ramp](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/ramp) Move a CPU-bound test suite to a faster CPU ### [Shopify](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/shopify) Let an agent iterate against one CI metric ### [Spotify](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/spotify) Build arm64 on native arm64 runners ### [Stripe](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/stripe) Run only the tests a change can reach ### [Uber](https://starsling.dev/ci-playbooks/uber) Build the merge-queue speculations most likely to be needed ## Related guides Implementation guides for this technique. ### [Cut repeated test setup](https://starsling.dev/best-practices/github-actions/cut-repeated-test-setup) Move shared fixture work out of individual test cases and keep necessary cleanup. ### [Shard tests across parallel jobs](https://starsling.dev/best-practices/github-actions/shard-tests) Split a long suite with a matrix and your test framework’s sharding support. ### [Diagnose slow tests in CI](https://starsling.dev/github-actions/problems/slow-tests) Check common causes in order and confirm each with workflow evidence. ### [Optimize Playwright tests](https://starsling.dev/github-actions/optimizations/optimize-playwright) Choose trace and video retention and install the browsers your suite uses. ### [Make Vitest run mode explicit](https://starsling.dev/github-actions/optimizations/optimize-vitest) Pin run mode to the test command and bound the job with a timeout.