---
title: Lease Configuration
description: Configure lease duration and reclaim behavior for safe distributed execution.
order: 35
---

# Lease Configuration

Leases ensure only one worker actively owns a run at a time under normal operation.

Lease settings balance two things:

- fast recovery when workers die
- avoiding premature reclaim for legitimate long-running jobs

## Key option

- `LeaseDuration` / `LeaseDurationSeconds`: lease time-to-live for claimed runs.

DurableStack extends leases during execution via heartbeat.

## Example

```csharp
builder.Services.AddDurableStackPostgres(connectionString, options =>
{
    options.LeaseDurationSeconds = 30;
});
```

## How it behaves

- Worker claims run and receives lease ownership.
- Heartbeat extends lease while job is running.
- If heartbeat stops, lease expires and run can be reclaimed.

## Tuning guidance

- Set lease duration above normal execution time for routine jobs.
- For mixed workloads, size lease around common-path jobs and keep handlers idempotent.
- Validate reclaim behavior in staging by killing workers during execution.

## Warning signs

- Frequent unexpected retries for normally healthy jobs (lease may be too short).
- Slow recovery after worker crashes (lease may be too long).