The action Make a pause

Purpose

Introduces a deliberate delay before the scenario continues to the next action. Use it when you must wait briefly for an external call to complete, a file lock to be released, or a short network/device latency to settle.

Where to add

Place the Pause action at the point where you need a fixed wait (for example, immediately after launching an external program, after uploading a file, or before trying to open a file that may still be locked).

Main field

• In seconds
  Enter the number of seconds to wait (use the up/down spinner or type the value). The action pauses the current scenario run for that many whole seconds.

Behavior notes

• Blocking delay: the action blocks the current scenario flow. Downstream actions in the same run will not start until the pause completes.
• Scope: the pause affects only the current pipeline item / scenario run. Other parallel runs or other scenarios continue normally (subject to your system’s worker/thread limits).
• Resource impact: while paused the run occupies its worker slot. Long pauses reduce overall throughput and can exhaust worker capacity if many runs are paused simultaneously.

Tips and best practices

• Prefer short delays: use the smallest delay that reliably solves the timing problem (for example 1–5 seconds for transient locks).
• Combine with Execute Program: when launching an asynchronous external process, either have that process write a completion marker and use a wait-for-file action, or poll with short Pause intervals and a max attempt counter.

Simple! Set the desired number of seconds, save the action, and the scenario will wait that amount of time before executing the next action. Use short delays or implement a polling/callback strategy for more robust or long-running waits.