Wait For Condition activity

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Wait For Condition activity

    The Wait For Condition activity allows you to pause a playbook until a specified record meets defined field value conditions. This is useful for controlling playbook flow based on dynamic data changes in your ServiceNow records.

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    Roles and Availability

    This activity is a common activity accessible to users with the admin, playbook.admin, or pdauthor roles. These users can add the Wait For Condition activity to their playbooks to manage conditional pauses effectively.

    Configuring Inputs

    To configure this activity, open the activity properties panel and provide the following key inputs:

    • Label: A string to title the activity and its playbook card.
    • Description: Information about the activity’s usage or expected outcome.
    • Run condition: Define conditions that must be met to run the activity or stage, using data from prior activities if needed.
    • Start Rule: Specify when the activity or stage should start, with options such as starting when the process starts, after specific stages, or after specific activities.
    • Start with delay: Optionally add a delay before the activity or stage runs.
    • Record Reference: Reference to the record that the playbook will wait on until conditions are met.
    • Table: Specify the table containing the record to monitor.
    • Conditions Template Value: Criteria defining the conditions the record must meet for the playbook to proceed.

    Advanced Inputs

    You can expand the configuration to include advanced options such as:

    • Enable timeout: Option to set a timeout duration after which the activity will stop waiting and mark itself as skipped if conditions aren’t met.
    • Duration: The amount of time to wait before timing out, requires enabling timeout.
    • Schedule: Defines the schedule context used to calculate duration, also requires enabling timeout.

    Outputs

    The Wait For Condition activity does not produce any outputs. Its primary function is to pause playbook execution until conditions are satisfied or a timeout occurs.

    Pause the playbook until a record has field values that match a set of conditions.

    Roles and availability

    • This activity is available as a common activity. Users with the admin, playbook.admin, or pd_author can add this activity to a playbook.

    Inputs

    Open the activity properties panel and configure your activity to add values for the following inputs. If the input value varies, use the pill-picker to show where to get the value. To learn more about the pill-picker, see .
    Input Type Description
    Label String Title to display as activity and playbook card.
    Description String Information to display about activity usage or outcome.
    Run condition Condition Builder Conditions that must be met to run an activity or stage. You can use data from prior activities to build conditions.
    Note:
    Select Show additional options to see this field.
    Start Rule Choice Under Schedule > Start Rule, select a start rule for when your stage should start running:
    • When process starts: Your stage starts running as soon as the playbook starts.
    • After specific stages: Your stage starts running after specified stage(s) have finished running.
    Under Schedule > Start Rule, select a start rule for when your activity should start running:
    • When stage starts: Your activity starts running as soon as its stage starts running. Your stage starts running when your playbook is triggered.
    • After specific activities: Your activity starts running after specified activities have finished running.
    Start with delay True/False Option to wait for a duration of time before running an activity or stage. When enabled, this input displays the Start with delay input properties.
    Note:
    Select Show additional options to see this field.
    Record Reference Reference to the record that pauses the playbook until conditions match.
    Table Table Name Table containing the record to update.
    Conditions Template Value Criteria that a record must meet for the playbook to continue.

    Advanced inputs

    After configuring the required inputs for your activity, you can also choose to configure additional inputs. In the side panel, select Show additional options to display these advanced inputs. For more information, see Activity experience.
    Input Type Description
    Enable timeout Choice Option to time out the Wait for Condition activity if the conditions aren't met after a specified Duration.
    Duration Date/Time Amount of time to wait before the activity times out and its state is set to Skipped. This input requires setting the Enable timeout input.
    Schedule Choice Schedule used to compute duration values. This input requires setting the Enable timeout input.

    Outputs

    The Wait for Condition activity has no outputs.