Delay send email action based on a variable input

intact658 — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 05:49:21 GMT

Hello,

I've a workflow with two actions. First is a JS action that returns an output like this one:

delay_seconds = 300 recipients = [ { "to": user.one@company.com }, { "to": user.two@company.com } ]

Second is an email action. It uses result("js_action")["delay_seconds"] in "wait before" option. And it uses result("js_action")["recipients"] in "loop task" option.

This works as expected. Both users receive email after a delay of 300 seconds.

Now I need to modify the workflow so that js_action returns an output like this one instead:

recipients = [ { "delay_seconds": 300 "to": user.one@company.com }, { "delay_seconds": 500 "to": user.two@company.com } ]

But with this change I'm not able to use _.item["delay_seconds"] in "wait before" option.

How can I achieve this use case? User one should receive email with delay of 300s while user two should receive email with 500s delay.

This is simplification of the real use case. I want to avoid creating 100s of workflows (1 per user or team). Instead I want user to define their preferences in ownership object and use workflow to notify them as per their preferences.

Thanks,

Re: Delay send email action based on a variable input

sujit_k_singh — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 00:30:56 GMT

Hi @intact658

The "Wait before" option is evaluated once for the entire task, not per loop iteration so _.item["delay_seconds"] won't work there.

You can go with Group by delay + Run Workflow action, I mean JS action groups recipients by delay_seconds, then loop through groups using Run Workflow action to trigger a child workflow per delay group. The child workflow has the email action with "wait before" set from the input parameter.

Thanks,

Sujit

topic Delay send email action based on a variable input in Automations

Delay send email action based on a variable input

Re: Delay send email action based on a variable input