Triggers

An automation's triggers decide when its handler runs. Each automation can have one or more triggers, added as rows in the triggers deck in the editor. Every trigger has a type — schedule, webhook, or event — and the fields below depend on it.

Schedule

Runs the handler on a cron schedule. Requires the automations:process command to be run by cron.

Field Description
cron A standard 5-field cron expression, e.g. */15 * * * * (every 15 minutes) or 0 3 * * * (daily at 03:00). Evaluated in the site timezone.

The cron field offers a dropdown of common schedules — pick one to fill in the expression, or type your own. The editor validates the syntax as you type, and macros like @daily / @hourly are also accepted.

The built-in suggestions:

* * * * *       Every minute
*/15 * * * *    Every 15 minutes
*/30 * * * *    Every 30 minutes
15 * * * *      Hourly at :15
0 */6 * * *     Every 6 hours
20 5 * * *      Daily at 05:20
0 8,17 * * *    Twice daily (8am & 5pm)
0 2 * * 0       Sundays at 02:00
0 8 * * 1       Mondays at 08:00
0 9 * * 1-5     Weekdays at 09:00
30 9 1 * *      Monthly on the 1st at 09:30
0 0 1 1 *       Yearly on the Jan 1st at 00:00

These are starting points — any valid 5-field cron works.

Webhook

Runs the handler when an HTTP POST hits the automation's endpoint:

POST /automations/{id}
Field Description
auth apiKey (key scoped to POST /automations), sameOrigin (browser form posts from this site only), or none (public, rate-limited per IP). See Webhooks.
sync When on, the request blocks and the response is the handler's return value. When off, the run is queued and the endpoint returns 202 Accepted immediately.

Request query and body are passed to the handler as $ctx->args. See Webhooks for authentication and payload details.

Event

Runs the handler when a core content event fires.

Field Description
event The event name, e.g. object.created, object.updated, object.deleted, schema.saved, user.login.
collection Optional. Restrict the trigger to one collection; leave blank to match every collection.

The event payload (collection, id, …) is available to the handler as $ctx->event. Event runs are queued and processed on the next automations:process tick, so a slow handler never blocks the write that triggered it.

During a bulk import, object.created / object.updated are suppressed in favour of import.created / import.updated. Subscribe to the import.* events if you specifically want to react to import-time writes.

Multiple triggers

Mix trigger types freely — e.g. a report automation might run on a nightly schedule and expose a webhook so you can trigger it on demand. Each trigger fires the same handler; inspect $ctx->trigger['type'] if the handler needs to behave differently per source.