Settingsintermediate

Trigger types reference

Every event Atender can trigger an automation on, grouped by the type of context it gives the rule (conversation, tag, case, SLA, schedule, business hours).

6 min read

Trigger types reference

Every automation has exactly one trigger. The trigger sets the type of context the rest of the rule works with — a conversation event gives you the conversation, contact, channel, and message; a schedule event gives you a snapshot of everything matching the criteria.

This reference lists every trigger Atender currently supports, grouped by event type.

Conversation events

  • Conversation created — A new conversation is opened on any channel
  • Message received — A new inbound message arrives on an existing conversation
  • Status changed — Conversation moves between statuses — active, snoozed, done, archived
  • Agent assigned — An agent is set or reassigned on a conversation
  • Team assigned — A customer service team is set or reassigned
  • Channel updated — Conversation moves to a different channel (e.g. chat → email handoff)
  • Customer level changed — Contact’s customer tier changes (e.g. promoted to VIP)
  • Call abandoned in IVR — A voice call exits while still in the IVR, before reaching a queue or agent

Tag events

  • Tag added — Any tag — or a specific tag if you filter in conditions — is applied to a conversation
  • Tag removed — A tag is removed

Issue events

  • Issue status changed — An issue’s status actually changes

Issue status changes fire once for each linked conversation/reporter, so ordinary conversation actions can notify each reporter in their own thread. The trigger context includes the issue number, title, status, previous status, type, and priority.

  • Trend spike — Trends detects a meaningful spike for a tag

Trends triggers are only visible when the tenant has the trends beta flag enabled.

Case events

Case triggers are not currently available in automation rules. Use the other trigger groups in this reference until case triggers return.

Case triggers will return with the cases workflow rollout.

SLA events

  • SLA at risk — A target is approaching its deadline (configurable lead time)
  • SLA breached — A target’s deadline has passed without being met
  • SLA resolved — A target is met before breach

Schedule events

Cron-style time-based triggers. Useful for nightly cleanup, weekly digests, recurring outbound batches.

  • Schedule — “Every weekday at 09:00”, “Every day at 02:00”, “First of the month at 06:00”

A schedule trigger evaluates against historical data at run time — it gives the rule a snapshot of every conversation currently matching its conditions, then runs the action sequence against each one.

Business hours events

  • Business hours opened — The transition from outside-hours to inside-hours, per the opening hours for the workspace
  • Business hours closed — The transition from inside-hours to outside-hours

Picking the right trigger

The most common mistake is picking Conversation created when you actually want Message received. The first only fires once per conversation; the second fires on every inbound message. If your automation needs to react to ongoing back-and-forth (auto-tag based on content, escalate on a keyword, etc.), use Message received.

For IVR-abandon routing, use Call abandoned in IVR. It fires after the call has exited the IVR before reaching a queue or agent, so it is the right trigger for rules such as assigning these conversations to an IVR team. Do not use Conversation created for IVR-abandon rules — at creation time, the queue or reached-queue state is not final yet.

For after-hours auto-replies, prefer using Message received with a schedule restriction set to “outside business hours” rather than the Business hours closed trigger — the latter only fires on the transition itself, not on each message that arrives while closed.

See also

Tags

Reference
Back to Settings