Clarify documentation in YARP about `ActivityTimeout` and route-level `Timeout` interaction

[wadepickett]

Description

The current documentation for YARP in this repository does not clearly explain how the ActivityTimeout policy interacts with the route-level Timeout setting when configuring reverse proxy routes.

This topic has come up in products as referenced in existing issues (YARP #2452, YARP discussion #2457), showing that users are confused about how these timeout policies combine, take precedence, and what the effective timeout behavior is under different configurations.

Needs Changing

• Update the relevant YARP documentation pages to clearly describe:
  • The relationship between ActivityTimeout and the route-level Timeout setting.
  • How each timeout is applied in the request lifecycle.
  • Scenarios where both are set, including precedence and failure behavior.
  • Explicit callouts or warning about common misconfigurations.
• Add code/configuration examples demonstrating proper usage.

Why

By clarifying this documentation, users will better understand how to correctly configure timeouts in YARP reverse proxy setups, reducing confusion and the likelihood of faulty expectations in production environments.

References

• YARP Issue #2452: Confusing Timeout Options
• YARP Discussion #2457: Timeout Policy Clarification
• Related PR for reference: dotnet/AspNetCore.Docs#36287

Page URL

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/fundamentals/servers/yarp/timeouts?view=aspnetcore-9.0

Content source URL

https://github.com/dotnet/AspNetCore.Docs/blob/main/aspnetcore/fundamentals/servers/yarp/timeouts.md

Document ID

e0ab97b1-161b-8b9a-a3c5-10339ce41232

Platform Id

06b3ef81-3649-4a00-cfec-7771e3a60edc

Article author

@wadepickett

Metadata

• ID: e0ab97b1-161b-8b9a-a3c5-10339ce41232
• PlatformId: 06b3ef81-3649-4a00-cfec-7771e3a60edc
• Service: aspnet-core
• Sub-service: fundamentals

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Associated WorkItem - 505511

[wadepickett]

Fixed with community PR #36287