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DocumentationOperatorsTimer

Timer

Overview

The Timer operator can run on an interval at startup, or it can be triggered on receiving a message

Example where it is triggered from a message and then sends 5 messages to the next node:

- id: timer
  operator: Timer
  interval_ms: 500
  iterations: 5
  on_start: false

Example where it starts at startup and sends a message to the next node every 1s indefinitely.

- id: timer
  operator: Timer
  interval_ms: 1000
  on_start: true

Examples

On startup

Send a message to the next node at startup and every 30s thereafter.

name: timer-start
nodes:
  - id: start
    operator: Timer
    on_start: true
    interval_ms: 30000
 
  - id: terminate
    operator: MessageTranslator
    mode: json
    template: |
      {
        "input": data
      }
 
edges:
  - { from: start, to: terminate }

On message

When you make a call to /sse-timer it will return a response every 500ms for 5 iterations.

name: sse-timer
nodes:
  - id: start
    operator: HTTPIn
    sse: true
    method: ^(GET)$
    routes:
      - /sse-timer
 
  - id: timer
    operator: Timer
    interval_ms: 500
    iterations: 5
    on_start: false
 
  - id: translate
    operator: MessageTranslator
    mode: json
    template: |
      {
        "sse": "stuff",
        "data": data,
        "_ts": now()
      }
 
edges:
  - { from: start, to: timer }
  - { from: timer, to: translate }

curl -v http://localhost:2243/sse-timer

Result:

data: {"_ts":"2025-09-16T02:22:09.818654+00:00","data":{"timer":"started"},"sse":"stuff"}

data: {"_ts":"2025-09-16T02:22:10.319945+00:00","data":{"timer":"triggered"},"sse":"stuff"}

data: {"_ts":"2025-09-16T02:22:10.821935+00:00","data":{"timer":"triggered"},"sse":"stuff"}

data: {"_ts":"2025-09-16T02:22:11.323562+00:00","data":{"timer":"triggered"},"sse":"stuff"}

data: {"_ts":"2025-09-16T02:22:11.825343+00:00","data":{"timer":"triggered"},"sse":"stuff"}

data: {"_ts":"2025-09-16T02:22:12.326531+00:00","data":{"timer":"triggered"},"sse":"stuff"}

data: {"_ts":"2025-09-16T02:22:12.326802+00:00","data":{"timer":"stopped"},"sse":"stuff"}

Configuration Reference

name

Must be 'Timer'

Stringrequired

on_start

Indicates whether this timer should start at startup or on receiving a message

BooleanrequiredDefault: "false"

interval_ms

If triggered by message, this is the interval in milliseconds for N iterations.

Numberrequired

iterations

If triggered by message, the number of messages sent to next node.

NumberrequiredDefault: "0"
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