Durable timer

Why you need it

Sleep for seconds or months without holding a worker thread or paying for an idle container.

Code examples

Choose an SDK (preference is sticky in this browser; default Python).

def wait_for(self, context, input):
    return Wait.any_of(Timer.by_duration(timedelta(hours=24)))

Use Timer.by_duration (or calendar APIs) inside wait_for.

How Dex implements it

Timers are persisted as durable conditions. When a timer fires, Dex resumes the waiting Step. Workers are not blocked while waiting.

Traditional workarounds

Classic workarounds: delayed queue messages, cron “wakeups”, or sleeping threads that evaporate on restart.