Choosing what triggers a workflow

Workflow triggers decide when the workflow starts. Triggers can be events in tawk.to, based on a weekly schedule, a request from another system or your AI agent. Each workflow needs at least one trigger to run, but it can have multiple triggers.

This guide is about workflow triggers. Not to be confused with chat Triggers, which send automatic messages to website visitors. For that, see Creating and managing triggers.

To learn how to build a whole workflow from start to finish, see Creating your first workflow, step by step.

To add a trigger, click Choose a trigger. If the workflow already has a trigger, click Add trigger. Events are grouped by product area at the top. Schedule, Webhook and AI agent are under Other.

Click a product area to see its events. To go back, click Back to product areas.

New events can be added over time. The trigger picker always shows the current list.

Most of the time, you don't want a workflow to run for every event. A filter makes it run only for the events that you care about.

1. In the outline, select the trigger.
2. Turn on Only run when conditions match.
3. Select All conditions match or Any condition matches.
4. For each condition, select a field and an operator, and type a value if necessary.
5. To add a condition, click Add condition.

These operators are available: equals, does not equal, contains, does not contain, greater than, less than, at least, at most, is true, is false, exists and does not exist. You see only the operators that fit the field.

Examples:

• Conversation priority changed, with the new priority equals highest: only urgent conversations.
• Card moved to stage, with Pipeline ID equal to your sales pipeline and New stage ID equal to your "Lost" stage: only lost deals.

If an event does not match the conditions, the workflow skips the run. A skipped run is not a failure. To see skipped and failed runs, see Testing, monitoring and troubleshooting workflow runs.

For "updated" events, such as Card updated or Person updated, select the fields that start the workflow. The workflow runs when any of the selected fields changes.

For example, on Card updated, select Value and Expected close date. The workflow then runs only when the value or the close date of a deal changes.

Events can start a workflow at most 60 times a minute. Events over that limit are skipped, and the Runs tab shows them as skipped runs.

A schedule runs the workflow at regular times, for example a summary every Monday morning.

1. Click Choose a trigger (or Add trigger).
2. Click Schedule.
3. Select a Frequency:
   
   • Every hour: select At minute.
   • Every day: select At time.
   • Every week: select On day and At time.
   • Every month: select On day of month and At time.
   • Custom (cron): type a standard cron expression with 5 fields.
4. Select your Timezone.

The trigger card shows a short summary, for example Every Monday at 09:00, with the cron expression below it (0 9 * * 1). After you save, Next runs lists the next run times, so you can check your schedule. The Workflows page also shows the Next run time for each workflow with a schedule.

Notes:

• A schedule can't run more often than every 5 minutes.
• For a monthly schedule, On day of month offers days 1 to 28 only, so the workflow runs every month.

A webhook trigger gives the workflow its own URL. When another system sends a request to this URL, the workflow runs. Use it to start workflows from your website forms, online store, booking tool or your own code.

Before you start: each request must be signed with a secret (see Send a request below). Most form builders and website tools can't sign requests on their own, so you usually need a developer to set this up.

1. Click Choose a trigger, then click Webhook.

2. Add your steps.

3. Click Create. tawk.to makes the hook URL and the signing secret when you save.

4. Select the webhook trigger again and click Rotate secret. This is how you see the Hook URL and the signing secret for the first time. They show one time only, so copy both to a safe place now.

5. In the Settings tab, turn on Enabled and click Save. The hook URL accepts requests only while the workflow is enabled. A disabled workflow answers with HTTP 404.

Rotate secret always makes a new signing secret. The hook URL stays the same. If you lose the secret, click Rotate secret again and update each system that calls the hook URL.

Verify token (optional): leave this empty unless the service that calls your workflow asks for one. Some services check a webhook URL before they send any events. They send a GET request with hub.verify_token and hub.challenge in the URL. If the token matches your Verify token, the workflow answers with the challenge, and the service knows that the URL is yours. The verify token does not replace the signature: each POST request must still be signed.

Send a POST request with a JSON body to the hook URL. Sign the request with this header:

Example for the command line:

If the request is correct, you get a response like this:

Each field in the JSON body becomes runtime data under trigger. In the example above, your steps can use {{trigger.orderId}} and {{trigger.email}}. See Using runtime data in workflows.

Notes:

• After you rotate the secret, the previous secret can keep working for a short time, but older secrets stop working. Update each system that calls the hook URL with the new secret as soon as you can.
• Keep the hook URL and the signing secret safe, like a password. Anyone who has both can start your workflow.
• A copy of the workflow gets its own hook URL and signing secret when you save it, and it does not keep the Verify token. Before the copy can take requests, click Rotate secret on it to see its URL and secret, then set them up in the system that calls it.

The AI agent trigger turns the workflow into a tool that your AI agent can use in conversations, for example to book a call-back, hand the conversation to a person or look up an order. This trigger has its own settings: mode, tool description and inputs. See Letting your AI agent run workflows.

A workflow can have many triggers. They show under When any of, and the workflow runs when any of them fires. For example, an "Urgent issues" workflow can run on Ticket priority changed and on Conversation priority changed.

• To add a trigger, click Add trigger.
• To pause one trigger, use the switch on its card. The workflow stays on, and its other triggers still start it. To turn the whole workflow on or off, use Enabled in the Settings tab.
• To remove a trigger, click the trash icon on its card.

Tip: Different triggers can give different data. Make sure that each step uses only data that all your triggers give. If a trigger doesn't give a value, the run fails, and the error tells you which value is missing.

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