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 no entity context at all.
This reference lists every trigger Atender currently supports, grouped by event type.
Conversation events
- Conversation Created — A new conversation is opened on any channel
- Conversation Status Changed — Conversation moves between statuses — active, snoozed, done, archived
- Conversation Resolved (Status → Done) — A conversation is marked Done
- Conversation Reopened (Done → Active) — A Done conversation goes back to Active
- Conversation Archived — A conversation is archived
- Assignment Changed — An agent or team is set or reassigned on a conversation
- Conversation Field Updated — A conversation custom-field value changes after creation
- Conversation Idle (No Activity for X time) — No message for the idle time you set on the trigger — any message, agent replies only, or customer messages only
- Call Abandoned in IVR — A voice call exits while still in the IVR, before reaching a queue or agent
Creation-time Sidekick detections are covered by Conversation Created. Use Conversation Field Updated for later changes to conversation custom-field values.
Message events
- Message Received (Inbound) — A new inbound message arrives on a conversation
- Message Sent (Outbound) — An outbound message is sent on a conversation
- First Message Received — The first inbound message on a conversation arrives
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
Contact and customer tier events
- Contact Created — A new contact is created
- Contact Updated — A contact’s details change
- Customer Tier Changed — Contact’s customer tier changes (e.g. promoted to VIP)
- Customer Tier Assigned (First Time) — A contact gets a customer tier for the first time
- Customer Tier Removed — A contact’s customer tier is removed
Comment and side conversation events
- Comment Added (Internal Note) — An internal note is added to a conversation
- User Mentioned (@mention) — An internal note @-mentions a user
- Side Conversation Created — A side conversation is started
- Side Conversation Message Added — A message is added to a side conversation
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.
Incident events
- Incident Created (or a maintenance planned) — A status-page incident is created, or a maintenance window is planned
- Incident Updated (status changed or an update posted) — An incident changes status or gets a new update
- Incident Resolved (or a maintenance completed) — An incident is resolved, or a maintenance window is completed
These three triggers fire for both kinds; a rule that only wants one filters on incident.kind.
Trends events
- Trend Spike Detected — Trends detects a meaningful spike for a tag, a topic, or overall volume
Trends triggers are only visible when the tenant has the trends beta flag enabled.
Case events
- Case Created — A case is created
- Case Stage Changed — A case moves to a different workflow stage
- Case Assigned — A case’s assigned agent or team changes
- Case Closed — A case’s lifecycle status flips to closed
- Case Workflow Changed — A case is moved onto a different workflow
- User Mentioned in Case — A case comment @-mentions one or more users
SLA events
- SLA Breach Warning — A target is approaching its deadline (configurable lead time)
- SLA Breached — A target’s deadline has passed without being met
There is no trigger for a target being met before breach.
Schedule events
Cron-style time-based triggers. Useful for nightly cleanup, weekly digests, recurring outbound batches.
- Scheduled (Time-based) — “Every weekday at 09:00”, “Every day at 02:00”, “First of the month at 06:00”
A schedule trigger carries no conversation, contact or message context — when its cron time matches, the rule’s action sequence runs once, and no conversation conditions are offered for it.
Business hours events
- Business Hours Started — The transition from outside-hours to inside-hours, per the opening hours for the workspace
- Business Hours Ended — The transition from inside-hours to outside-hours
Manual
- Manual Trigger — Never on its own — the rule runs on demand from its Manual Executions tab against existing conversations
Picking the right trigger
The most common mistake is picking Conversation Created when you actually want Message Received (Inbound). 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 (Inbound).
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 (Inbound) with the Schedule Window set to “Outside opening hours (after hours)” rather than the Business Hours Ended trigger — the latter only fires on the transition itself, not on each message that arrives while closed.
See also
- Conditions and operators reference — narrow the trigger
- Actions reference — what the rule can do once it fires
- Branches and decision trees — handle multiple cases in one rule