The shop's declared default, actually firing

api/server.js

@@ -100,6 +100,22 @@ const startServer = async () => {
       console.log(`🚀 Environment: ${process.env.NODE_ENV || 'development'}`);
       console.log(`🚀 API Endpoint: http://localhost:${PORT}/api`);
       console.log('🚀 =====================================');
+
+      /*
+       * THE SHOP'S DECLARED DEFAULT, LOOKING FOR ORDERS NOBODY ANSWERED.
+       *
+       * Started here rather than on the till, because a shop served from the
+       * cloud has no till and its held orders would otherwise sit for ever.
+       * Does nothing at all until a shop has actually asked for a rule; see
+       * src/services/unanswered-orders.js.
+       */
+      try {
+        require('./src/services/unanswered-orders').start();
+        console.log('✅ Unanswered-order rule running');
+      } catch (e) {
+        /* A shop still takes orders without it. Never fatal at boot. */
+        console.warn('[unanswered-orders] not started:', e && e.message);
+      }
     });
 
     // Handle unhandled promise rejections

api/src/helpers/order-attention.js

@@ -69,4 +69,47 @@ function notifyOrderAttention(details = {}) {
   }
 }
 
-module.exports = { ATTENTION_EVENT, notifyOrderAttention };
+/*
+ * AND THAT IT NO LONGER DOES.
+ *
+ * The alarm repeats until somebody answers, and until now the only thing that
+ * could stop it was a person pressing something on the page. When the shop's
+ * own rule decides an order - "auto cancel after ten minutes" - the order IS
+ * answered, and an alarm still going is an alarm about nothing.
+ *
+ * The opposite failure is the one that was built in before this existed: the
+ * till dropped the order from its pending list the moment its policy spoke,
+ * without anything acting on it, so the noise stopped while the order sat
+ * there. A stopped alarm is a promise that something happened, so it is only
+ * ever sent AFTER the order has actually moved.
+ */
+const RESOLVED_EVENT = 'posnic:order-resolved';
+
+/**
+ * Announce that an order no longer needs anybody.
+ *
+ * @param {object} details
+ * @param {string} [details.branchId]
+ * @param {string} [details.saleId]
+ * @param {string} [details.state]  what it became: accepted or rejected
+ * @param {string} [details.by]     'rule' when the shop's own default fired
+ */
+function notifyOrderResolved(details = {}) {
+  try {
+    process.emit(RESOLVED_EVENT, {
+      branchId: details.branchId ? String(details.branchId) : '',
+      saleId: details.saleId ? String(details.saleId) : '',
+      state: details.state ? String(details.state) : '',
+      by: details.by ? String(details.by) : '',
+      at: new Date().toISOString(),
+    });
+    return true;
+  } catch (e) {
+    /* A silence that fails to arrive is a shop with a noise it can stop by
+       hand, which is where it was before. */
+    console.warn('[order-attention] could not announce a resolution:', e.message);
+    return false;
+  }
+}
+
+module.exports = { ATTENTION_EVENT, RESOLVED_EVENT, notifyOrderAttention, notifyOrderResolved };

api/src/services/settings-groups.js

@@ -383,6 +383,25 @@ const CHANNELS = [
      kitchen that starts at once and wrong for one that batches. 0 switches
      it off; after it, cancelling becomes a request the shop decides on. */
   'online_order_change_seconds',
+  /*
+   * WHAT HAPPENS WHEN NOBODY ANSWERS AT ALL, and after how long.
+   *
+   * Owner: "let restaurent owner decide that. give option auto cancel or auto
+   * accept. based ont time he defines it. by default dont accpept or reject."
+   *
+   * '' | 'accept' | 'cancel', and a number of minutes. BOTH or neither: a
+   * choice with no time fires immediately and a time with no choice fires
+   * nothing, so either half alone is a half-written rule. Absent means nothing
+   * happens, on purpose - a product that cancels a customer's order because a
+   * shop never opened a settings page has made a decision that was not its to
+   * make. services/unanswered-orders.js is what acts on it.
+   */
+  'online_order_on_silence',
+  'online_order_decide_after_minutes',
+  /* An aggregator rejects on its own timer and counts it against the shop, so
+     a decision of ours landing after theirs is worse than none: the order is
+     already gone and we have recorded the opposite. 0 means no such window. */
+  'online_order_partner_window_minutes',
   /* [{ code, name, unit_label, address, delivery_note, ask_floor,
      price_adjust_percent, commission_percent, enabled }] - hotels, offices and
      anywhere else that is not the shop's own floor. The code is what a printed