How do I cancel a Node fetch request when its time budget expires?

A request without an explicit deadline can outlive the work that needed it. Cancellation should be passed into the operation rather than implemented only as a competing timer. Use a supported AbortSignal timeout or an AbortController tied to the request lifetime. Clear manual timers during cleanup. Test slow headers and a stalled response body, since both consume time. A Promise.race timeout alone leaves the underlying request running unless it is explicitly aborted. Cancellation also does not prove that the remote server stopped processing; reconcile writes using an operation ID before retrying. Minimal example:

import assert from 'node:assert/strict';
import { setTimeout as delay } from 'node:timers/promises';
const controller = new AbortController();
const pending = delay(1000, 'done', { signal: controller.signal });
controller.abort();
await assert.rejects(pending, { name: 'AbortError' });
// Local cancellation test; it does not assert remote server rollback.