Tool: Delay — Zelaxy Docs

The Delay block pauses your workflow for a set duration before continuing to the next step. Use it to rate-limit API calls, wait for external processes to complete, create timed sequences, or add cooldowns between actions.

Overview

Property	Value
Type	`delay`
Category	Tool — Flow Control
Auth	None

Operations

Operation	Tool ID	Description
Wait / Delay	`delay_wait`	Pause execution for the specified duration (seconds, minutes, or hours)

Configuration

Setting	Type	Required	Description
`duration`	number	Yes	How long to wait. Enter a positive numeric value (e.g. `5`, `30`, `1.5`).
`unit`	string	Yes	Time unit for the delay. Accepted values: `seconds`, `minutes`, `hours`. Defaults to `seconds`.

Outputs

Field	Type	Description
`delayed`	boolean	`true` when the delay completed successfully
`duration`	number	The requested delay duration as passed in
`unit`	string	The time unit used (`seconds`, `minutes`, or `hours`)
`delayMs`	number	Actual delay in milliseconds (computed from `duration` and `unit`)
`startedAt`	string	ISO 8601 timestamp recording when the delay began
`completedAt`	string	ISO 8601 timestamp recording when the delay finished

Example

[Starter] → [HTTP Request: trigger scrape] → [Delay: wait 30 seconds] → [HTTP Request: fetch result] → [Agent: summarise]

A workflow kicks off a slow external scrape job, then uses a Delay block configured with duration = 30 and unit = seconds to wait before polling for the result. Set the duration with {{starter.waitSeconds}} to make the pause dynamic, and pass completedAt downstream to log exactly when execution resumed.

Tips

Rate limiting: Insert a Delay between blocks that hammer an API to stay within per-second or per-minute quotas.
Polling pattern: Pair a Delay with a Loop block — delay between each poll iteration until a condition is met.
Dynamic duration: Supply duration from an upstream block output (e.g. {{httpRequest.retryAfter}}) to honour Retry-After headers automatically.
Unit choice: Prefer seconds for short waits (under a minute) and minutes/hours for longer pauses — it keeps the duration value readable.

Delay