# Measure time between steps in Vercel Workflows

Source: [Vercel](https://vercel.com/changelog/measure-time-between-steps-in-vercel-workflows)  
Feed7 permalink: https://feed7.dev/p/measure-time-between-steps-in-vercel-workflows-0dtmqf6  
Published: 2026-08-05T00:00:00.000Z  
Trust: Official Source (official_source)

## Why Included

Vercel’s workflow trace viewer can measure gaps between steps, helping distinguish slow task execution from delayed starts and queue waits in agent workflows.

## Source Summary

The Vercel Workflows trace viewer can now measure time between any two steps. Select one step, hold **Option on macOS or Alt on Windows and Linux**, and hover another to draw the measurement.

## Practical Implication

Use the gaps to investigate runs whose total duration exceeds the visible work. For sequential steps, the viewer measures end-to-start delay; for overlapping or nested steps, it compares start times. With nothing selected, the modifier reveals gaps across the timeline.

## Agent-Ready Context

The Vercel Workflows trace viewer can now measure time between any two steps. Select one step, hold **Option on macOS or Alt on Windows and Linux**, and hover another to draw the measurement.

Use the gaps to investigate runs whose total duration exceeds the visible work. For sequential steps, the viewer measures end-to-start delay; for overlapping or nested steps, it compares start times. With nothing selected, the modifier reveals gaps across the timeline.

The feature exposes timing relationships but does not identify their cause. A visible delay may indicate a queued or delayed start, but the material does not describe automatic diagnosis, alerts, or historical aggregation.

## Connected Context

Feed7 judgment across 368 accumulated Signals:

This adds a precise manual way to locate unexplained time inside a workflow trace, narrowing investigation from total duration to specific inter-step or overlapping-start gaps. It improves diagnosis but not attribution or remediation: teams still need other telemetry and operational logic to determine whether a measured delay came from queuing, execution, routing, or another cause.

- [Export AI Gateway traces with Vercel Drains](https://feed7.dev/p/export-ai-gateway-traces-with-vercel-drains-0enwlg4) — Workflow gap measurements locate delay between steps, while exported Gateway traces can explain latency, routing, and retries inside an inference request that occupies part of that timeline.
- [Agent Runs now available in the Vercel MCP and CLI](https://feed7.dev/p/agent-runs-vercel-mcp-cli-06cfo04) — Agent Runs exposes reasoning and tool-call traces to coding agents; the workflow viewer adds a complementary human inspection of timing relationships around such work.
- [AI Gateway logs now have a dedicated page](https://feed7.dev/p/ai-gateway-logs-1272t5j) — Gateway logs provide request-level latency and fallback evidence that can help interpret a workflow gap, while the new measurement feature alone cannot identify its cause.
- [How Forward Deployed Engineering is done at Factory — Eno Reyes](https://feed7.dev/p/how-forward-deployed-engineering-is-done-at-factory-eno-reyes-0zgscmd) — Factory’s workflow-design approach makes instrumentation a prerequisite for bounded autonomy; explicit inter-step timing supplies one additional measurement for finding where an instrumented path stalls.

## Context Map

- Layer: infra
- Domains: coding
- Topics: observability

## Uncertainty

- The feature exposes timing relationships but does not identify their cause. A visible delay may indicate a queued or delayed start, but the material does not describe automatic diagnosis, alerts, or historical aggregation.

## Agent Instruction

Use this item as source-backed context. Do not invent claims beyond the linked source. If this item conflicts with another source, call out the conflict.