How to add dynamic TimeoutSeconds for activity in AWS Step Functions?

Question

I have an activity in step function with TimeoutSeconds, like this:

ActivityWaiting:
    Type: Task
    ResultPath: $.output
    Resource: arn:aws:states:#{AWS::Region}:#{AWS::AccountId}:activity:myActivity
    TimeoutSeconds: 3600

I would like to control the value of TimeoutSeconds and to change it with a parameter from the previous step. I've tried something like that:

ActivityWaiting:
    Type: Task
    ResultPath: $.output
    Resource: arn:aws:states:#{AWS::Region}:#{AWS::AccountId}:activity:myActivity
    TimeoutSeconds: $.myTimeout

But unfortunately, it didn't work.

Edit: I would like to calculate/define the time myTimeout before executing the step function with python. Something like that:

data['myTimeout'] = getTimeout() #dymanic time in the seconds(ex 15000)

response = step_functions.start_execution(stateMachineArn=state_machine, input=json.dumps(data))

Answer 1

Since I couldn't find a solution for dynamic timeout.

I've made a workaround using AWS Choice state

I was needed to wait for an answer from a microservice, the time depended on the quantity of objects, which I've sent to it. Process of each object took like 3 minutes in average, therefore the timeout could be from 3 minutes and more.

All the results, my microservice has written into a DB. So I created a lambda, that checks the DB in a loop.

The exit condition is

• Getting all the results in DB
• Waiting time has ended, which calculated dynamically for each every execution

I work with Serverless framework, here is my final solution:

VerifyLambda:
    Type: Task
    Resource: arn:aws:lambda:#{AWS::Region}:#{AWS::AccountId}:function:verify-step
    Next: IsFinished
IsFinished:
    Type: Choice
    Choices:
        - Variable: $.isFinish
        BooleanEquals: false
        Next: Wait 3m
    Default: NextLambdaStep
Wait 3m:
    Type: Wait
    Seconds: 180
    Next: VerifyLambda
NextLambdaStep: ...