A delay step pauses the Automation for a specified duration before continuing to the next step.
Common use cases:
- Email sequences — Space out emails in an onboarding series.
- Cooldowns — Prevent sending too many emails in a short period.
- Follow-ups — Give users time to take action before sending a reminder.
How it works
Using the dashboard
Using the API
You can configure a “Time Delay” duration using natural language.
The delay step accepts a single duration field with a human-readable time value.import { Resend } from 'resend';
const resend = new Resend('re_xxxxxxxxx');
const { data, error } = await resend.automations.create({
name: 'Welcome Series',
steps: [
{
key: 'start',
type: 'trigger',
config: { eventName: 'user.created' },
},
{
key: 'wait_1_day',
type: 'delay',
config: { duration: '1 day' },
},
],
connections: [{ from: 'start', to: 'wait_1_day', type: 'default' }],
});
"30 minutes", "1 hour", "12 hours", "1 day", "3 days", "1 week". The maximum delay is 30 days.
Configuration
The delay duration in natural language (e.g. "1 hour", "3 days"). Maximum:
30 days.
{
"key": "wait_1_hour",
"type": "delay",
"config": {
"duration": "1 hour"
}
}
