Help Needed: HTTP Request Table Delay and Error Troubleshooting

Christopher O. · 2025-08-20T12:55:34.234Z

Hi Good day to every one! Just wanted to ask about this strange behavior of the http request . So I need to wait for at least 3 minutes before the columns to proceed. I opted to get some help from n8n with wait node. So I could wait for 3 minutes, but this http api request column is throwing an error even tho I setup the wait for at least 20 minutes. Can you help me on this one? Thank you! :heart:

Help Needed: HTTP Request Table Delay and Error Troubleshooting | Clay

3 comments

· Sorted by Oldest

Clay
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The error you're experiencing with your HTTP API request is likely a "failed to parse body" error, which occurs when there's a formatting issue in the Body section of your HTTP API enrichment. Common causes include: ** Missing quotation marks around text values ** Extra commas where they shouldn't be * Special characters that aren't properly formatted To help troubleshoot this further, could you copy and paste the JSON from your HTTP API request body into the chat? This will allow me to identify the specific formatting issue causing the error. You can also set rate limits in the HTTP API settings by defining a Request Limit and Duration (in milliseconds) to control how many requests are sent within a given timeframe.
Sources: FAQ: Why am I seeing the "failed to parse body" error when using the HTTP API enrichment? HTTP API with JWT authentication | Documentation | Clay University HTTP API integration overview | Documentation | Clay University
Aditi S.
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Hi Christopher - thanks so much for reaching out. Taking a look here and will get back to you on this
Aditi S.
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Thanks for your patience here! I wanted to clarify what’s happening with your workflow: ** Using the n8n wait node correctly delays your workflow for the time you specify. ** However, Clay’s HTTP API column has its own internal timeout. If the external API takes longer than that timeout to respond, the column will fail with an ETIME error, even if your workflow waited 20 minutes beforehand. So the errors you’re seeing aren’t because your wait node isn’t working, and they’re not a bug in Clay - they’re expected behavior due to how the HTTP API column handles long requests.
Recommended workarounds: ** Asynchronous polling: Instead of one long request, have Clay repeatedly check a “status” endpoint that tells you when the data is ready. ** External workflow push: Use n8n (or another workflow tool) to fetch the data after the wait period, then write the results into Clay via API. This approach avoids the timeout and ensures your data makes it into Clay reliably. Hope that helps

Clay
APP
·
·
The error you're experiencing with your HTTP API request is likely a "failed to parse body" error, which occurs when there's a formatting issue in the Body section of your HTTP API enrichment. Common causes include: ** Missing quotation marks around text values ** Extra commas where they shouldn't be * Special characters that aren't properly formatted To help troubleshoot this further, could you copy and paste the JSON from your HTTP API request body into the chat? This will allow me to identify the specific formatting issue causing the error. You can also set rate limits in the HTTP API settings by defining a Request Limit and Duration (in milliseconds) to control how many requests are sent within a given timeframe.
Sources: FAQ: Why am I seeing the "failed to parse body" error when using the HTTP API enrichment? HTTP API with JWT authentication | Documentation | Clay University HTTP API integration overview | Documentation | Clay University
Aditi S.
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Hi Christopher - thanks so much for reaching out. Taking a look here and will get back to you on this
Aditi S.
·
·
Thanks for your patience here! I wanted to clarify what’s happening with your workflow: ** Using the n8n wait node correctly delays your workflow for the time you specify. ** However, Clay’s HTTP API column has its own internal timeout. If the external API takes longer than that timeout to respond, the column will fail with an ETIME error, even if your workflow waited 20 minutes beforehand. So the errors you’re seeing aren’t because your wait node isn’t working, and they’re not a bug in Clay - they’re expected behavior due to how the HTTP API column handles long requests.
Recommended workarounds: ** Asynchronous polling: Instead of one long request, have Clay repeatedly check a “status” endpoint that tells you when the data is ready. ** External workflow push: Use n8n (or another workflow tool) to fetch the data after the wait period, then write the results into Clay via API. This approach avoids the timeout and ensures your data makes it into Clay reliably. Hope that helps