timeout for sessions made with sdk

pppp
New Contributor II

‎02-03-2026 12:24 AM

How do I determine the rules for when a session will timeout? From testing it seems to be related to inactivity. I am using JavaScript SDK and I want to test my logic for creating a new session when the current one times out based on this issue: https://github.com/databricks/databricks-sql-nodejs/issues/166. Can this setting be changed in databricks? 

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Saritha_S
Databricks Employee
Databricks Employee

‎02-03-2026 02:36 AM

Hi @pppp 

Good day!!

The JavaScript SDK session object (what you get from client.openSession()) can expire if unused or idle for a certain period. This behavior was noted explicitly in the related GitHub discussion:

after some period of inactivity the session will expire and you’ll start getting errors.

However:

  • Databricks does not currently provide a documented configuration to change the idle timeout for SQL sessions used via the SDK.

  • There’s no SQL parameter like idle_session_timeout exposed for Databricks SQL sessions (unlike some databases). The only timeout parameter documented is STATEMENT_TIMEOUT, which is about execution duration, not session inactivity.

  • The server will drop sessions after inactivity but the exact timeout value isn’t publicly documented like the SQL timeout is.

Kindly let me know if you have any questions on this. 

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pppp
New Contributor II

‎02-04-2026 07:30 AM

seems to be timing out after 15 min of inactivity