Time conventions

Pairings by track scopetimelimit / idle_timeout

Track scope	timelimit	idle_timeout	Notes
Concept / instructional	`5400`	`1800`	90 min total · 30 min idle. For pure-knowledge tracks where typing is light.
Short academy / single-product workshop	`7200`	`3600`	2 hr total · 1 hr idle. Most demo and customer-enablement tracks.
Long-form workshop with cloud provisioning	`28800`	`7200`	8 hr total · 2 hr idle. Standard for multi-step labs that include real cloud infrastructure.
Multi-product / better-together	`28800`	`28800`	8 hr total · idle disabled. Multi-week-pace content where learners step away.
Live-presenter demo	`3600`	`0`	1 hr total · idle disabled. Use sparingly — abandoned sandboxes with idle disabled eat budget.

Field referenceAll time-related

`timelimit`	Total seconds for the track-level clock.
`idle_timeout`	Seconds of inactivity before teardown. `0` disables.
`extend_ttl`	Boolean. Allow learner-initiated time extension.
`pausable`	Boolean. Allow lab pause and resume.
`pausable_ttl`	Max pause duration in seconds.
`show_timer`	Boolean. Whether learner sees the countdown.

pausable_ttl valuesWhen pausable: true

`604800`	7 days. Most common.
`1209600`	14 days. Multi-week workshops where learners progress across weekend sessions.

Operational consequence: any track state must survive an arbitrary pause. Avoid in-memory caches, processes started under tmux, or anything that won’t outlast a sandbox suspend/resume cycle.

Pacing decisionsChoosing values

timelimit sets the track clock; pad 25–50% over expected completion to absorb provisioning waits and learner pace variance. idle_timeout reclaims abandoned sandboxes — set to a value that’s longer than the longest expected wait (cloud provisioning, Helm install, image pull) but short enough to release abandoned sessions. Default to 1800 unless the track has long synchronous waits.

Trap: idle_timeout: 0 on anything other than a live-presenter track quietly burns budget. Abandoned sandboxes never reclaim.

Certification + pause trackerFor graded tracks

Certification tracks with pausable: true typically pair the pause with a cron-based pause tracker that pings an external endpoint every minute while paused — enforces TTL limits and emits telemetry.

Pattern: install a cron entry in track-level setup, point at an exam endpoint, deliver auth via a STUDENT_JWT agent variable. Pair with engagement-validation patterns from the granular-check card.

Show-timer choiceshow_timer

Show for self-paced tracks where pace awareness helps learners. Hide for instructor-led tracks where the timer is invisible to the learner anyway, or for unstructured exploration where the clock would create artificial pressure.

Notes

Match the conventions. The pairings table above is what learners and downstream automation expect. Deviating without reason creates surprises — a 4-hour timelimit with a 7200-second idle_timeout looks like a long-form workshop with a runaway clock.
Budget calibration. Sandbox cost scales with active runtime. idle_timeout is the primary lever for releasing abandoned sandboxes; timelimit is the hard cap.
extend_ttl + time-extension tag lets the platform UI show a one-click extension prompt. Useful on long-form workshops where the default 28800 may not suffice for slower learners.
pausable for cert tracks: the canonical pairing is pausable: true + pausable_ttl: 604800 + a cron-based pause tracker. Without the tracker, the platform can’t enforce TTL or emit progress telemetry.