Workflows Article

Workflow Triggers

Last updated: May 18, 2026 4 min read Intermediate

Workflow Triggers

A workflow starts with a trigger. ISO Mate supports eight trigger sources, each designed for a different class of automation. Pick the source that matches when you want the workflow to run, then layer conditions on top to narrow the match further.

Entity Triggers

Entity triggers fire when a record is created, updated, or deleted in the account. They cover 30+ entity types including Task, Incident, Issue, Note, Test Case, Test Cycle, Test Execution, Sprint, Release, User Story, Compliance Framework, Requirement, Control, Policy, Procedure, Attestation, Evidence, Custom Object Entry, Email, Ticket, Ticket Reply, Calendar Event, Lead, Opportunity, Deal, Contact, Sales Activity, Satisfaction Rating, Feedback, and Mailbox.

Entity dispatch happens after the database transaction commits, so the workflow always sees the final saved state. When the trigger entity is Entry, also select the custom Object Type. When the trigger entity is Email, you can optionally restrict the trigger to specific shared mailboxes.

Field-Changed Filter

Pair the Updated event with a field-changed condition to fire only when a specific field transitions. Optionally set the from-value and to-value to narrow the match even further (for example, fire only when status changes from in_progress to done).

Scheduled Triggers

Scheduled workflows run on a cron schedule. Use the friendly interval picker (every 5 minutes, every hour, every day at a chosen time, and so on) or paste a five-part cron expression into the custom input.

Minimum cadence: schedules must run no more often than every 5 minutes. Expressions that fire more frequently (for example * * * * * or */1 * * * *) are rejected at save time. This protects the shared per-minute dispatch sweep from any single over-eager workflow.

Scheduled workflows use the synthetic Schedule trigger entity. Placeholders like {{now}} and {{now -7d}} resolve to the current execution time and are often combined with for-each queries to pull records from a rolling window.

Time-Relative Triggers

Time-relative triggers fire N minutes, hours, or days before or after a datetime field on a chosen entity. Configure:

  • Entity type: any trigger entity with datetime fields.
  • Field: the datetime field to watch (due_date, start_at, detected_at, and so on).
  • Offset value: a positive integer.
  • Offset unit: minutes, hours, or days.
  • Direction: before or after.

Common uses include “24 hours before task due date”, “1 hour before calendar event”, or “3 days after incident detected”.

Inactivity Triggers

Inactivity triggers fire when a record has not been updated for a configured duration. Configure an entity type, a threshold value, and a threshold unit.

Minimum threshold: when the unit is minutes, the value must be at least 15. Thresholds expressed in hours or days are unaffected. Optional status filters and exclusion conditions narrow which records are eligible.

Common uses include “ticket open for more than 3 days”, “lead with no activity for 7 days”, or “test execution not started 24 hours after cycle start”.

Manual Triggers

Manual workflows expose a Run workflow button on issue, ticket, task, lead, deal, opportunity, and contact detail pages. When clicked, the workflow runs against the current record.

Configure the entity types list when using a pure manual trigger, or set manual_enabled = true on any other trigger source to expose that workflow as an additional manual run option.

Webhook Triggers

Webhook workflows expose a public URL that external systems can post JSON payloads to. The workflow signs and verifies every request against a secret, which you can rotate from a reveal-once dialog.

  1. Create a workflow with trigger source Webhook and trigger entity WebhookEvent.
  2. Save the workflow. The webhook URL and signing secret are displayed once. Copy the secret immediately.
  3. Configure the sending system to post JSON and include the signature header.
  4. Use {{trigger.payload.<key>}} placeholders inside actions to reference fields from the incoming JSON.
  5. Rotate the secret any time from the workflow detail page. The new secret is shown once on rotation.

Anomaly detection watches for webhook request spikes. If the 5-minute rate exceeds 3x the rolling baseline (and the baseline itself exceeds 10 requests), a one-time alert is emitted per 1-hour cooldown so you can investigate possible compromise or misconfiguration.

Form Submission Triggers

Form-submission workflows run whenever a published form is submitted. Configure a list of form_ids on the trigger. Field values are exposed as {{trigger.<field>}} placeholders inside actions.

Typical uses include turning a contact request form into a lead, turning a bug report form into a helpdesk ticket, or kicking off an onboarding workflow when a new customer signs up.

Trigger Conditions

Every trigger source supports optional conditions that filter execution. Conditions use comparison operators (equals, not equals, contains, in, not in, greater than, less than) plus text-only operators (starts with, ends with, regex match, all case-insensitive). Group conditions with AND, OR, and NOT logic.

For email triggers, the Email Classification condition distinguishes between new inbound emails and replies to existing tickets by inspecting subject references and In-Reply-To headers.

Was this article helpful?