Is it possible to change the start_delay on a Temporal workflow in the Python SDK?

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1

We currently start our workflows like below. However, we might want to change the actual start time of our workflow to be sooner or later based on business logic, so I was wondering if it’s possible to update the start_delay on the Temporal workflow. Thanks!

handle = await self._temporal_client.start_workflow(
                        NameOfWorkflow.run,
                        workflow_args,
                        id=str(workflow_id),
                        task_queue="service-name",
                        start_delay=max(
                            instance(transition.timestamp, tz="UTC") - now(tz="UTC"),
                            duration(seconds=0),
                        ),
                    )
2

The code you posted does not update the delay of an already running workflow. It calculates the delay before starting the workflow. Is it what you want?

3

Hi @maxim yes, my current code calculates the delay before starting the workflow.

I was wondering after this code runs, is there a way for me to adjust the amount of time delayed before starting the workflow.

4

There is no currently API for this. The recommended approach is to not use delay but a timer inside the workflow and update the timer based on a signal. See samples-python/updatable_timer at main · temporalio/samples-python · GitHub

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