Debounce Or Skip

onEdit fires for every cell change — paste 40 rows and your automation thrashes. debounceOrSkip uses CacheService as a quiet window: if a token exists, return false (skip); else put the token and return true (run). Distinct from locks (locks wait/serialize concurrency; debounce drops rapid re-entry).

What you'll need

• Apps Script with CacheService (script or document cache)
• A noisy entrypoint (onEdit, installable edit, rapid menu clicks)
• A TTL that matches “human finished editing” (often 2–10 seconds)

How to use this snippet

/** * Debounce an action via CacheService. * @param {string} actionKey stable id for this action (e.g. 'onEdit:colB') * @param {number=} ttlSeconds quiet window (default 5; CacheService max 21600) * @return {boolean} true = proceed; false = skip (token already set) */ function debounceOrSkip(actionKey, ttlSeconds) { ttlSeconds = ttlSeconds == null ? 5 : ttlSeconds; var cache = CacheService.getScriptCache(); var token = 'debounce:' + actionKey; if (cache.get(token)) return false; cache.put(token, '1', Math.max(1, Math.min(ttlSeconds, 21600))); return true; }

Example

function onEdit(e) { if (!e || !e.range) return; // Only care about Status column changes if (e.range.getColumn() !== 3) return; if (!debounceOrSkip('onEdit:Status', 3)) { console.log('onEdit: debounced'); return; } // … sync, label, notify … }

Tips:

• Key by action, not by every cell — too-fine keys defeat the quiet window.
• Use document cache when each spreadsheet should debounce independently across bound scripts sharing a library (advanced); script cache is usually enough.
• Debounce ≠ lock: overlapping long work still needs tryLockOrSkip / withScriptLock.
• Installable onEdit can do UrlFetch; simple onEdit cannot — debounce doesn’t change that.
• TTL is best-effort; CacheService can evict early under pressure.

Tip: NitroGAS Co-Pilot can paste debounceOrSkip at the top of your edit handler and suggest an actionKey — you pick the TTL that matches how fast people edit.

Happy Coding!