Delay Action

The delay action awaits a specified amount of time before moving on to trigger the following steps of the workflow. Learn more about the Delay.

Common usecases

Waiting for X amount of time before sending the message
Wait for a short period of time before sending a push message in case the user seen the notification in the Inbox Component
Allow the user some time to cancel an action that generated a notification

Adding a delay step

Delay steps can be inserted at any stage of your workflow execution, they can happen after or before any action. The workflow execution will be halted for the given amount of time and then resumed to the next step in the flow. The action can also be skipped using the skip parameter conditionally to allow more complex usecases of when to wait and when to send an email immediately.

Delay with skip condition
Delay and Inbox step

Here, we are delaying the execution of the next step by 1 day and skipping the delay step if the isCriticalMessage function returns true.

await step.delay(
  'delay',
  () => {
    return {
      type: 'regular',
      unit: 'days',
      amount: 1,
    };
  },
  {
    skip: () => isCriticalMessage(),
  }
);

Here, we are delaying the execution of the in-app step by 30 minutes and sending the in-app notification only if the subscriber has goalReminderInAppAllowed set to true for subscriber. If during 30 minutes delay window, subscriber sets goalReminderInAppAllowed to false, the in-app step will be skipped.

export const goalReminderInAppAfterDelay = workflow(
  'goal-reminder-in-app-after-delay',
  async ({ step, subscriber }) => {
    await step.delay('delay-step', async () => {
      return {
        type: 'regular',
        amount: 30,
        unit: 'minutes',
      };
    });

    await step.inApp(
      'in-app-step',
      async () => {
        return {
          subject: `Don't Forget Your Fitness Goals Today!`,
          body: `Hey ${subscriber.firstName}, it's been a while since you logged your
                last activity. Keep up the momentum and complete your workout to stay on
                track with your goals!`,
        };
      },
      {
        skip: () => subscriber.data?.goalReminderInAppAllowed === false,
      }
    );
  }
);

Changing the step content after triggering the workflow with delay step will not affect the existing pending delayed notification content.

Extend to subscriber’s schedule

Set extendToSchedule to true to hold the workflow when the delay ends outside the subscriber’s delivery schedule. Novu waits once, until the start of the next open window. The configured delay duration still follows your plan limit. The wait until that window is separate. Examples are on the Delay step page.

await step.delay('delay', () => {
  return {
    type: 'regular',
    unit: 'hours',
    amount: 1,
    extendToSchedule: true,
  };
});

Frequently Asked Questions

If delay step fails, will the workflow continue to the next step?

No, workflow execution will stop immediately if the delay step fails due to an error.

Getting Started

Core Concepts

Channels

Content

Advanced Features

API Reference

Deployment

Delay Action

Common usecases

Adding a delay step

Extend to subscriber’s schedule

Frequently Asked Questions

​Common usecases

​Adding a delay step

​Extend to subscriber’s schedule

​Frequently Asked Questions

Common usecases

Adding a delay step

Extend to subscriber’s schedule

Frequently Asked Questions