Triggers are the first step in building a workflow. They determine when and how your workflow should run. Think of triggers as the “when” of your workflow - they define the conditions or events that will cause your workflow to execute. When building a workflow in the Workflows Builder, selecting a trigger is always the first step. The trigger you choose will determine what data is available to subsequent steps in your workflow and how the workflow can be initiated.

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Creating a Trigger

To create a trigger, click the “Add Trigger” button in the bottom left corner of the Workflows Builder and select the type of trigger you want to create.

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Trigger Types

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Manual / API Triggers

Manual triggers allow you to run workflows on-demand through:
  • The Leap Workflows UI dashboard
  • Direct API calls using the Run Workflow endpoint
This is ideal for:
  • Testing and development
  • One-off workflow executions
  • Integration into your own applications
Manual triggers allow you to configure an optional set of input parameters.

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Schedule Triggers

Schedule triggers let you run workflows automatically at specified intervals using cron expressions. For example:
  • Every hour: 0 * * * *
  • Daily at midnight: 0 0 * * *
  • Every Monday at 9am: 0 9 * * 1
This is perfect for:
  • Regular batch processing
  • Periodic data updates
  • Automated reporting
  • Scheduled maintenance tasks
If you’re not familiar with cron expressions, you can use the Cronify tool to help. It converts natural language (like “every Monday at 9am”) into the correct cron expression format.

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Event-Based Triggers

Event triggers automatically run workflows in response to external events from integrated platforms:

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Supported Events

  • Slack
    • New message in channel
  • GitHub
    • Pull request comments
Event triggers are ideal for:
  • Real-time processing
  • Automated responses
  • Integration with external services
  • Building interactive applications
Triggers won’t be activated until you publish your workflow. Any changes you make to triggers will require republishing the workflow to take effect.