@se-oss/timeout

A modern, feature-rich replacement for JavaScript's native setTimeout and setInterval that handles delays longer than 24.8 days and provides modern features like Promises and AbortSignal support.

JavaScript's built-in setTimeout and setInterval have a maximum delay of 2^31 - 1 milliseconds (approximately 24.8 days). Attempting to use a longer delay causes the timer to fire almost immediately. This package provides drop-in replacements that handle arbitrarily long delays by automatically breaking them into smaller chunks, while also adding modern features for advanced control flow.

---

• Features
• Installation
• Usage
• API
• Contributing
• License

✨ Features

Feature	@se-oss/timeout	Native Timers (setTimeout, etc.)
Long Delays (> 24.8 days)	✅	❌
Promise-based API (delay)	✅	❌
AbortSignal Cancellation	✅	❌
Get Remaining Time	✅	❌
Drop-in Replacement	✅	✅
Works in Node.js & Browsers	✅	✅

📦 Installation

npm install @se-oss/timeout

Install using your favorite package manager

pnpm

pnpm install @se-oss/timeout

yarn

yarn add @se-oss/timeout

📖 Usage

Handling Long Delays

Simply import setTimeout and setInterval from @se-oss/timeout and use them as you would with the native functions.

import { setTimeout } from '@se-oss/timeout';

// Schedule a callback for 30 days in the future.
// With native setTimeout, this would fire immediately.
const timeout = setTimeout(
  () => {
    console.log('30 days have passed!');
  },
  30 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000
);

// You can still clear it as usual
// clearTimeout(timeout);

Promise-based Delay with AbortSignal

For modern asynchronous code, the delay function provides a promise-based API that can be easily awaited and cancelled using an AbortSignal.

import { AbortError, delay } from '@se-oss/timeout';

const controller = new AbortController();

async function someAsyncTask() {
  try {
    console.log('Waiting for 5 seconds...');
    await delay(5000, { signal: controller.signal });
    console.log('Done waiting.');
  } catch (error) {
    if (error instanceof AbortError) {
      console.log('The delay was aborted!');
    }
  }
}

const task = someAsyncTask();

// To cancel the delay from another part of your application:
// controller.abort();

Checking Remaining Time

All timer objects returned by this package have a remaining() method that lets you check the time left until execution.

import { setTimeout } from '@se-oss/timeout';

const timeout = setTimeout(() => {
  console.log('Fired!');
}, 5000);

setTimeout(() => {
  const timeLeft = timeout.remaining();
  console.log(
    `Approximately ${Math.round(timeLeft / 1000)} seconds remaining.`
  );
}, 2000);

// Logs: "Approximately 3 seconds remaining."

📚 API

For all configuration options, please see the API docs.

setTimeout(callback, delay, ...args)

Schedules a function to be called after a delay. Handles delays longer than 24.8 days.

• callback: (...args) => void: The function to call.
• delay?: number: The delay in milliseconds.
• options?: { signal?: AbortSignal }: An optional options object. If an AbortSignal is provided, the timeout is automatically cleared when the signal is aborted.
• ...args: Optional arguments to pass to the callback.

Returns a Timeout object.

clearTimeout(timeout)

Clears a timeout created with setTimeout.

• timeout: Timeout: The timeout object to clear.

setInterval(callback, delay, ...args)

Schedules a function to be called repeatedly every delay milliseconds. Handles delays longer than 24.8 days.

• callback: (...args) => void: The function to call.
• delay?: number: The delay in milliseconds.
• ...args: Optional arguments to pass to the callback.

Returns a Timeout object.

clearInterval(interval)

Clears an interval created with setInterval.

• interval: Timeout: The interval object to clear.

delay(ms, options?)

Returns a promise that resolves after a ms milliseconds.

• ms: number: The delay in milliseconds.
• options?: { signal?: AbortSignal }: An optional options object. If an AbortSignal is provided, the promise will reject with an AbortError when the signal is aborted.

Timeout Object

The object returned by setTimeout and setInterval.

• id: TimerHandle | undefined: The internal timer ID.
• cleared: boolean: true if the timer has been cleared.
• ref(): Timeout: (Node.js only) Marks the timer as active, preventing the event loop from exiting.
• unref(): Timeout: (Node.js only) Allows the event loop to exit if this is the only active timer.
• remaining(): number: Returns the number of milliseconds remaining until the next execution.

AbortError

An error class for rejections caused by an AbortSignal.

🤝 Contributing

Want to contribute? Awesome! To show your support is to star the project, or to raise issues on GitHub

Thanks again for your support, it is much appreciated! 🙏

License

MIT © Shahrad Elahi and contributors.