Event

Timer Catch Event

Sits inside the sequence flow as an explicit wait step. Every token that reaches this event pauses here until the timer fires, then continues along the outgoing flow.

Properties

Property	Type	Required	Description
ID	string	yes	Unique element identifier
Name	string	no	Display label
Timer Type	`duration` \| `date` \| `cycle`	yes	How the timer behaves
Timer Expression	string	yes	ISO 8601 expression

Timer Expressions

Duration — wait for a fixed amount of time from when the token arrives

Expression	Meaning
`PT30M`	30 minutes
`PT2H`	2 hours
`P1D`	1 day
`P1DT4H30M`	1 day, 4 hours, 30 minutes

Date — wait until an absolute point in time

Expression	Meaning
`2026-06-01T09:00:00Z`	1 Jun 2026 at 09:00 UTC
`2026-06-01T09:00:00+05:30`	1 Jun 2026 at 09:00 IST

Always include a timezone offset or Z. Omitting it is ambiguous.

Cycle — fire repeatedly; each firing advances the token once and re-arms

Expression	Meaning
`R/PT1H`	Every hour, forever
`R3/PT30M`	Every 30 minutes, 3 times
`R5/P1D`	Every day, 5 times

Format: R[n]/<duration>. Omit n to repeat forever.

XML Example

<!-- Wait 24 hours before sending a follow-up -->
<bpmn:intermediateCatchEvent id="wait_1d" name="Wait 24h">
  <bpmn:timerEventDefinition>
    <bpmn:timeDuration>P1D</bpmn:timeDuration>
  </bpmn:timerEventDefinition>
  <bpmn:incoming>flow_to_wait</bpmn:incoming>
  <bpmn:outgoing>flow_to_followup</bpmn:outgoing>
</bpmn:intermediateCatchEvent>

Timer Catch Event vs Boundary Timer

	Timer Catch Event	Boundary Timer Event
Position	In the sequence flow	Attached to a task
Purpose	Deliberate scheduled pause	Timeout / escalation
All tokens pass through?	Yes	No — only fires if task is still active
Supports date and cycle?	Yes	No — duration only