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A delay rule holds a matching transaction for a fixed time and then executes it automatically. Nobody has to approve it. The window gives your monitoring, or a person, the chance to notice a transfer that shouldn’t go out. Use a delay when you want a safety net without making a person approve every transfer. Use require_approval when nothing should leave without a sign-off.

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How a delayed transaction behaves

  • Create transaction returns 202 Accepted with "status": "delayed".
  • The response carries execute_at, an ISO-8601 timestamp for when the time lock expires.
  • The transaction is persisted and its funds are locked for the whole window.
  • At execute_at it moves on to signing and broadcast by itself. You don’t resubmit it.
tx_hash stays empty until the transaction is broadcast.

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Write the rule

This rule delays any transfer over $100,000 by one hour, unless it goes to one of your own vaults.
delay_minutes is the only action_config key for delay. The values destination_type takes aren’t listed in the API reference: dry-run a real transfer to your vault and check the value in failed_condition.actual.
Place it among your other rules by how restrictive it is. A delay rule placed above a block rule for the same amounts would delay transfers you meant to block, then let them through. Validate stored draft policy warns about this kind of overlap.

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Test it

Dry-run a transfer that should be delayed:
Expect "result": "delayed", "delay_minutes": 60, and a reason such as “Transaction delayed 60 minutes by policy …”. Then dry-run the same amount with your vault as the destination, and confirm that the delay rule is not the terminal rule in trace.

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Choosing the window

  • Long enough to react. Match it to how quickly your team or alerting can act. An hour you can’t staff is the same as no delay.
  • Short enough for customers. Customer withdrawals that sit for a day generate support tickets. Scope the rule with conditions, such as wallet_id, vault_id, or source_type, so routine flows aren’t affected.
  • Make sure someone looks. A transfer matches only one rule, so the delay rule can’t also raise an alert. Subscribe to transaction.created and route delayed transactions to whoever watches the window.

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Show the wait to your users

While a transaction is delayed, show execute_at as the expected send time instead of a generic pending state. See Handle held and rejected transactions.