Beyond the API Call: Exploring Diverse Workflow Trigger Sources

You've built powerful agentic workflows and AI applications on the .do platform. They're smart, they're capable, but how do you get them to act? While the trigger.do API provides a direct and powerful way to initiate your workflows programmatically, the reality is that event triggers come from many sources.

Understanding these different workflow trigger options allows you to build more robust, responsive, and integrated AI applications. Let's dive beyond the simple API call and explore the diverse world of event sources that can trigger your agentic workflows.

The Power of trigger.do: Your Direct API Connection

As the foundation, trigger.do offers a straightforward way to programmatically fire off any workflow or action defined within your .do environment. This is invaluable for integrating with existing systems, responding to internal events, or initiating processes from within other applications.

Here's a quick reminder of how simple it is:

import { Do } from "@do/sdk";

const doClient = new Do({
  apiKey: "YOUR_API_KEY"
});

async function triggerWorkflow() {
  try {
    const result = await doClient.trigger(
      "your-workflow-id",
      {
        payload: {
          "user_id": "abc123",
          "event_type": "user_registered"
        }
      }
    );
    console.log("Trigger successful:", result);
  } catch (error) {
    console.error("Failed to trigger workflow:", error);
  }
}

triggerWorkflow();

This code snippet demonstrates how easily you can use the .do SDK to trigger a specific workflow (your-workflow-id) and pass a custom payload containing relevant data. This allows your agentic workflows to receive context and information from the initiating source.

Expanding Your Trigger Horizon

While the direct API call is essential, consider these other common and effective ways to trigger your agentic workflows:

Webhooks from Other Services: Many applications and services offer webhooks to notify external systems of events. You can configure these webhooks to send data to a .do webhook endpoint, which can then trigger a specific workflow. This is perfect for integrating with platforms like e-commerce stores (new order), CRM systems (lead update), or project management tools (task completion).
Scheduled Events: For tasks that need to run at regular intervals (daily reports, system maintenance checks, data synchronization), scheduled triggers within the .do platform or external cron jobs configured to call your trigger.do endpoint are ideal.
Database Changes: Monitor database changes using triggers or change data capture (CDC) tools. These events can then initiate a trigger.do call to kick off workflows based on data modifications.
Message Queue Systems: Integrate with message brokers like RabbitMQ, Kafka, or AWS SQS. Messages appearing in a queue can be consumed by a small service that then calls your trigger.do endpoint, allowing for asynchronous and scalable workflow initiation.
Manual Triggers (UI): Don't underestimate the power of a simple button click! For administrative tasks, testing, or less frequent actions, providing a manual trigger option within a custom interface can be very useful.
IoT Device Events: Data or events streaming from Internet of Things devices can be processed and used to triggerworkflows. This is crucial for automation in smart homes, industrial settings, and environmental monitoring.
Email or SMS Inbound: Process incoming emails or SMS messages and extract relevant information to initiate workflows. This can be used for support ticket creation, order processing, or simply responding to user input.
Spreadsheet Updates: Leverage tools that can monitor updates in spreadsheets (like Google Sheets or Excel Online) and trigger API calls based on changes in specific cells or rows.

Why Diverse Triggers Matter for AI Applications

For AI applications and agentic workflows, having diverse trigger sources is key to building truly responsive and intelligent systems:

Real-time Responsiveness: React to events as they happen, like a user registration or a critical system alert.
Integration with the World: Connect your AI agents to the external environment and other services.
Automating Complex Processes: Chain together actions and workflows based on a sequence of events.
Building Event-Driven Architectures: Design your AI applications to be reactive and loosely coupled.

Getting Started with Trigger.do

Ready to start anything now? The trigger.do platform makes it easy to define your workflows and connect them to these diverse trigger sources.

What is trigger.do? trigger.do allows you to initiate any process, workflow, or action defined within your .do environment by making a simple API call.

Can I pass data when triggering an event? Yes, you can pass custom data payloads with your trigger calls to provide context and information for the initiated workflow or action.

How do I find the ID of the workflow or action I want to trigger? You can find your unique workflow or action IDs within the .do platform interface.