[[configuring-default-throttle-period]]
=== Configuring the Default Throttle Period

By default, Watcher uses a default throttle period of 5 seconds. You can override this
for particular actions by setting the throttle period in the action. You can also 
define a throttle period on the watch level that will serve as a default period for
all those actions that don't specify a throttle period themselves.

To change the default throttle period for all actions that are not configured with a
throttle period neither on the action level nor the watch level, you configure the
`watcher.execution.default_throttle_period` setting in `elasticsearch.yml`.

For example, to set the default throttle period to 15 minutes, add the following entry
to your `elasticsearch.yml` file and restart Elasticsearch:

[source,yaml]
--------------------------------------------------
watcher.execution.default_throttle_period: 15m
--------------------------------------------------