Automations
Choosing a Trigger
The four ways an automation can start — a manual button, a schedule, a webhook address, or an event in a connected app
A trigger is your automation's starting whistle — nothing happens until it blows. It's always the first block on the canvas; click it to open the trigger settings and pick one of four ways to start a run.
Which trigger do I need?
| You want to... | Use |
|---|---|
| Run it yourself, whenever you decide | Manual |
| Run it every morning / hour / Monday | Schedule |
| Start it the moment something happens in HubSpot, Stripe, Shopify, GitHub… | App trigger |
| Let your own system or website start it by calling a private address | Webhook |
Click a mode to see its setup, exactly as the trigger block shows it:
Manual — "run when I press the button"
The simplest start: a Run button. Good for processes you want to control by hand — a monthly report you trigger when the numbers are ready, or a cleanup you run on demand.
A manual automation starts from its Demo data — a small piece of starting data, such as a customer name or a date range. When you press Run, a window lets you review and change it for this one run. Active manual automations can also be started by your agents and by Nirvai Connect, which makes them reusable routines.
Schedule — "run this on a timer"
An alarm clock for your automation: pick days, a time, and how often. When you set it up, Nirvai shows the next upcoming runs so you can confirm the timing reads the way you intended.
Webhook — "my own system starts it"
Your automation gets a private web address. When another system sends information to that address (including a private key so Nirvai knows it's really you), a run starts with that information as its input. Use this for your own website, forms, or internal tools.
App trigger — "start when something happens in another app"
The newest and most powerful option: subscribe your automation to real events in the apps you already use. Pick from a gallery of ready-made triggers — New deal in HubSpot, Order created in Shopify, Payment succeeded in Stripe, Issue opened in GitHub, and many more — connect the app, and the automation runs the moment the event happens, carrying the event's data with it.
App triggers have their own page: App Triggers.
The trigger data is your raw material
Whatever starts the run also feeds it. A schedule starts with a clean slate; a manual run carries your input; webhooks and app triggers carry the information the outside world sent — the deal, the order, the message. Every later step can reach that data through {{trigger...}} variables (Data Between Steps).
Demo data
Every automation has Demo data: a realistic sample of what its trigger delivers — like a filled-in example clipped to the front of a stack of blank forms. It sits in the trigger settings for every trigger (manual, schedule, webhook and app), and it's real, editable data in JSON (the simple {"field": "value"} format), never a greyed-out example. Change it and click Save demo data.
- It starts from what your steps need. With nothing saved yet, the box begins with the fields your steps read — a step using
{{trigger.customer}}gives you{"customer": ""}. If no step reads trigger data, it stays empty and the automation runs fine without input. - Real events fill it in. Capturing an event while testing an app trigger — or the last data sent to your webhook address — becomes the demo data.
- Test runs start from it — see Testing & Runs.
- Scheduled runs use it. A schedule has no incoming event, so steps that read trigger data get the demo data.
- A run's own data always wins. A value you change in Test Run, data sent by an agent, Nirvai Connect or your own system, or a real app event replaces the demo data for that run.
:::info Built by AI? Demo data is included When the AI Automations designer or an assistant connected through Nirvai Connect creates an automation for you, it always fills in demo data. On the designer's review page, the Demo data card — just above Test it before it goes live — lets you edit it before you activate. :::
Changing your trigger later
Click the trigger block anytime to switch modes — a scheduled automation can become manual, a manual one can gain an app trigger. Your blocks and connections stay untouched; only the starting whistle changes.
Troubleshooting
| Problem | Fix |
|---|---|
| My scheduled automation didn't run | Check that the automation is activated (the switch in the toolbar) — a draft never runs on its own. |
| My webhook runs don't start | Confirm the sender uses your exact private address and includes the private key. |
| I picked an app trigger but nothing happens | App triggers need to be activated and the app connected — see App Triggers. |
| I need to test without waiting for the real event | Every trigger has a test mode — see Testing & Runs. |
What's next
If you chose an app trigger, continue to App Triggers. Otherwise, set up your thinking steps in AI Steps.