> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://chatbase.co/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Triggers
> Automate your help desk with ordered rules that run when tickets are created or updated, setting statuses, routing work, and adding notes for you.
## Introduction
Triggers are automation rules for your help desk. Each trigger watches for tickets that are **created** or **updated**, checks them against the conditions you define, and runs the actions you choose - like setting a status, assigning a team or agent, or adding an internal note - without anyone lifting a finger.
The mental model is simple: **WHEN** a ticket matches your conditions, **THEN** run these actions.
Triggers run **in order, top to bottom**, and **every matching trigger fires**. This lets you stack rules - one to route billing questions, another to prioritize angry customers - and they all apply to the same ticket in the order you set.
You configure triggers from **Help desk settings → Triggers**.
Triggers require the Help Desk to be enabled for your agent. If you haven't set it up yet, see the [Help Desk overview](/docs/user-guides/chatbot/help-desk/help-desk-overview).
## How a Trigger Works
Every trigger is made of four parts:
A **name** and optional **description** so your team knows what the rule does and why.
The rules that decide whether a ticket matches - based on its status, channel, assignee, team, subject, and more.
What happens when a ticket matches - set a status, assign work, or add a note. Actions run in order.
Whether the trigger is **Active** or **Paused**. Only active triggers run.
## How Triggers Run (Cycles)
Triggers don't just run once from top to bottom - they run in **cycles**. This lets one trigger's action feed into another trigger's conditions, so your rules can build on each other.
Here's what happens each time a ticket is created or updated:
Chatbase checks every active trigger in order, top to bottom, against the ticket.
Each trigger whose conditions match runs its actions.
If any trigger changes the ticket (for example, it sets a new status or assigns a team), the scan **starts over from the top**. Triggers that hadn't matched before now get another chance, because they're re-checked against the ticket's updated state.
The cycle keeps restarting until a full pass makes no further change. At that point the ticket is done and the final result is saved.
Ordering still matters. Put the trigger that sets the foundational value (like status or team) **above** the triggers that react to it, so the reaction gets picked up when the scan restarts.
## Creating a Trigger
Go to **Help desk settings → Triggers** and click **New trigger**. A panel opens from the right.
Give it a clear **Name** (for example, "Route billing tickets") and an optional **Description** explaining what it does.
Add the conditions that decide when the trigger should run. See [Conditions](#conditions) below for every available field and operator.
Add at least one action to perform when a ticket matches. See [Actions](#actions) below for the full list.
Use the **Active / Paused** toggle to decide whether the trigger runs, then click **Create trigger**. New triggers are active by default.
## Conditions
Conditions decide which tickets a trigger applies to. They're organized into two groups:
* **Match ALL of** - every condition in this group must match.
* **Match ANY of** - at least one condition in this group must match. This group is optional and is combined with the ALL group using **AND**.
Use **Match ALL of** for the rules that must always be true (for example, "Status category is New") and **Match ANY of** for a set of alternatives (for example, subject contains "refund" **or** "chargeback").
### When does a trigger run?
Add a **Ticket is Created** or **Ticket is Updated** condition to control when a trigger fires. If you don't add one, the trigger runs on **both** create and update.
### Ticket condition fields
| Field | What it matches | Operators |
| ------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Ticket** | Whether the ticket was just **Created** or **Updated**. Use this to scope when the trigger runs. | `is` |
| **Status category** | The ticket's category: **New**, **On you**, **On customer**, **On hold**, **Closed**, or **Cancelled**. | `is`, `is not`, `is any of`, `is none of`, `changed`, `not changed`, `changed to`, `not changed to`, `changed from`, `not changed from` |
| **Status** | A specific ticket status you've configured (see [Ticket statuses](/docs/user-guides/chatbot/help-desk/ticket-statuses)). | `is`, `is not`, `is any of`, `is none of`, `changed`, `not changed`, `changed to`, `not changed to`, `changed from`, `not changed from` |
| **Channel** | The channel the ticket came in on - **Help desk**, **Chat bubble**, **Email**, **WhatsApp**, **API**, **Messenger**, **Instagram**, **Center stage**, or **Phone**. Select several at once. | `is any of`, `is none of` |
| **Assignee** | Who the ticket is assigned to, including **Unassigned**. | `is`, `is not`, `is any of`, `is none of`, `changed`, `not changed`, `changed to`, `not changed to`, `changed from`, `not changed from` |
| **Team** | Which team the ticket belongs to, including **No team**. | `is`, `is not`, `is any of`, `is none of`, `changed`, `not changed`, `changed to`, `not changed to`, `changed from`, `not changed from` |
| **Subject** | Keywords in the ticket subject. Add one or more keywords; matching is case-insensitive. | `contains any of` |
| **Description** | Keywords in the ticket description. Add one or more keywords; matching is case-insensitive. | `contains any of` |
### Contact condition fields
Match on the ticket **requester's** contact record. These look up the person who opened the ticket, so a ticket from an unidentified visitor (no contact record) matches nothing. Contact fields appear under the **Contact** group in the field picker.
| Field | What it matches | Operators |
| --------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Name / Email / Phone number / External ID** | A built-in field on the requester's contact. | `is`, `is not`, `is any of`, `is none of`, `contains any of`, `is set`, `is not set` (Email adds `domain is any of`) |
| **Custom attributes** | Any [custom contact attribute](/docs/user-guides/chatbot/help-desk/teams) you've defined, matched against the requester's value. | `is`, `is not`, `is any of`, `is none of`, `contains any of`, `is set`, `is not set` |
### Routing condition fields
These describe **how the ticket arrived** (its delivery "envelope") and are only meaningful **on ticket creation** - they're how you replace [Team Routing](/docs/user-guides/chatbot/help-desk/team-routing) with triggers. Pair them with a `Ticket is Created` condition and an **Assign team** action.
| Field | What it matches | Operators |
| --------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------- |
| **Recipient address** | The support email address that received the ticket. | `is any of`, `domain is any of`, `contains any of` |
| **Recipient phone** | The business phone / WhatsApp number that received the ticket. | `is any of` |
### About operators
| Operator | What it does |
| ----------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `is` / `is not` | Compares the ticket's **current** value. For example, "Status category **is** New." |
| `is any of` / `is none of` | Matches when the field is (or is not) one of several selected values. |
| `contains any of` | Matches when the text contains any of the keywords you list (used for **Subject**, **Description**, and text contact fields). |
| `domain is any of` | Matches the part **after the `@`** of an address - used for the contact **Email** field and the **Recipient address** field (for example, route everything from `acme.com`). |
| `changed` / `not changed` | Matches when the field did (or did not) change at all during this update, regardless of the new value. Takes no value. |
| `changed to` / `not changed to` | Matches (or excludes) a specific transition target - for example, "Assignee **changed to** Unassigned." |
| `changed from` / `not changed from` | Matches (or excludes) a specific transition source - for example, "Status **changed from** Open." |
| `is set` / `is not set` | Matches when a contact field has (or doesn't have) any value. Takes no value. |
The `changed*` operators only make sense on **updates** - they compare the value before and after the change. On ticket **creation** there's no previous value, so a `changed` condition won't match.
## Actions
Actions are what the trigger does when a ticket matches. Add at least one; they run **in order**, top to bottom.
| Action | What it does |
| ----------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Set status** | Move the ticket to a specific ticket status you've configured. |
| **Set status category** | Move the ticket to a category. This applies the category's **default status**. Tickets already in that category are left unchanged. |
| **Assign team** | Assign the ticket to a team, or to **Default team** (which always follows your current default team, even if you change it later). Optionally check **Auto-assign an agent using the team's strategy** to also route it to an agent based on that team's [assignment method](/docs/user-guides/chatbot/help-desk/assignment-algorithm). |
| **Assign agent** | Assign the ticket to a specific agent, or choose **Unassign** to clear the assignee. |
| **Add internal note** | Add an internal note to the ticket. Notes are visible to your team only, never to the customer. |
| **Send webhook** | Send an HTTP request to an external system. See [Send webhook](#send-webhook). |
### Send webhook
The **Send webhook** action posts an HTTP request to an external endpoint - to notify another system, kick off an automation, or sync ticket data.
The action itself is just a **selector**: you pick one of the webhooks you've configured under [**Settings → Webhooks**](/docs/user-guides/chatbot/settings#webhooks). The endpoint URL, headers, request body, and signing secret all live on the webhook connection, so several triggers can reuse the same one.
* Configure the endpoint, custom headers, and a request body template (with `{{ticket.*}}` placeholders) once under [**Settings → Webhooks**](/docs/user-guides/chatbot/settings#webhooks), then reference it from as many triggers as you like.
* Each delivery is signed with the connection's secret via an `X-Chatbase-Signature` header so your endpoint can verify it came from Chatbase.
* Webhooks are delivered **after** the ticket change is saved and are retried on transient failures, so your endpoint may receive the same event more than once - dedupe on the delivery id.
Set up a connection on the [**Settings → Webhooks**](/docs/user-guides/chatbot/settings#webhooks) page:
## Managing Triggers
### Ordering
Triggers run in the order they appear in the list. Drag the handle on the left of any trigger to reorder it. Because **every matching trigger fires**, the order matters when two triggers touch the same field - the later one wins.
### Activate or pause
Use the switch on each trigger row to turn it **Active** or **Paused**. Paused triggers stay in your list but don't run, so you can temporarily disable a rule without deleting it.
### Edit or delete
Open a trigger to edit its name, conditions, or actions at any time. To remove a trigger, use the delete control and confirm - deleted triggers stop running on new and updated tickets, and this can't be undone.
### Needs attention
If a trigger references something that no longer exists - a deleted team, an archived status, or a removed agent - it's flagged with a **Needs attention** badge. Open the trigger and update the affected condition or action to fix it.
## Good to Know
* **Every matching trigger fires.** Triggers aren't exclusive - all rules whose conditions match will run, in order. Use ordering to control which action takes precedence.
* **Triggers run after the ticket is saved.** They apply once a create or update is committed, so they never block or fail the underlying ticket change. Webhook actions are sent after the save, too.
* **Only active triggers run.** Pause a trigger to disable it without losing its configuration.
* **Triggers replace Team Routing.** Route tickets to teams with a `Ticket is Created` condition, a **Recipient address** / **Channel** condition, and an **Assign team** action. See the [Team Routing](/docs/user-guides/chatbot/help-desk/team-routing) page for the field-by-field mapping.
### Limits
| Limit | Value |
| -------------------- | ----- |
| Triggers per agent | 1000 |
| Conditions per group | 50 |
| Actions per trigger | 50 |
| Values per condition | 50 |
| Characters per value | 1000 |