The era of intelligent automation is here. AI agents—autonomous systems that can perceive their environment, make decisions, and take action—are no longer science fiction. They are rapidly becoming the engine of modern business, handling everything from data analysis to customer interactions. But how do you build one?
It might seem complex, but the core of any powerful AI agent is surprisingly simple. It consists of three parts: a workflow (the brain), an action (the hands), and most importantly, a trigger (the senses). A trigger is the event that tells your agent to wake up and get to work.
This guide will walk you through building your first AI agent, focusing on the critical first step: giving it the ability to perceive and react with powerful, flexible triggers.
Before we build, let's break down what an agent really is:
To build an effective agent, you need to seamlessly connect these three components. It all starts with the trigger.
First, what problem will your agent solve? Let's start with a common business need:
Goal: Automatically generate a daily sales report and email it to the leadership team every morning.
This is a perfect task for an AI agent. It's repetitive, data-driven, and happens on a predictable schedule.
Next, map out the "thinking" process for your agent. What steps must it take to achieve its goal?
This sequence of tasks is your agent's core workflow. It can be a Python script, a Node.js application, or a series of connected microservices.
Your workflow is designed, but it won't do anything on its own. It needs a trigger to kick it off. This is where Trigger.do comes in.
We need to tell our agent to run its workflow every morning. This calls for a scheduled trigger. With Trigger.do, you can define this with a simple cron expression.
Check out how easy it is to create a trigger that runs a generate-sales-report workflow every day at 9:00 AM UTC.
import { Trigger } from '@do-sdk/agent';
// Create a new trigger that runs a workflow every day at 9 AM UTC
const dailyReportTrigger = new Trigger({
name: 'daily-sales-report',
schedule: '0 9 * * *', // Cron expression for 9:00 AM daily
workflow: 'generate-sales-report',
input: {
period: 'daily',
recipients: ['team@example.com']
}
});
await dailyReportTrigger.enable();
console.log(`Trigger '${dailyReportTrigger.name}' is now active.`);
With just a few lines of code, you've given your agent its "senses." It now knows to wake up at 9:00 AM every day.
Notice the input field. This is how you pass static data to your workflow every time it runs. In this case, we're telling the workflow what period the report is for and who the recipients are, making your workflow reusable and configurable directly from the trigger.
Scheduled tasks are just the beginning. The true power of modern AI agents comes from their ability to react to events in real time. Trigger.do excels at this with event-driven triggers.
Imagine these scenarios:
This is the promise of event-driven automation: turning any business process into an intelligent, on-demand service that responds instantly to the world around it.
You've now seen the blueprint for building a powerful AI agent. You start a clear goal, design a workflow, and—most importantly—give it a reliable trigger to bring it to life. The trigger is the bridge between the event and the action, the spark that ignites your automation.
Whether you need to run tasks on a schedule, react to webhooks from third-party services, or create your own custom event-driven architecture, having a robust triggering platform is essential.
Ready to build your first agent? Explore Trigger.do and start automating your business logic with simple, powerful API calls.
What kinds of events can I use with trigger.do?
You can use a variety of events, including time-based schedules (using cron syntax), incoming webhooks from external services, and internal system events from other .do agents or services.
How do I create a trigger for a webhook?
You can define a new trigger and specify its type as 'webhook'. The platform will provide a unique URL to receive incoming HTTP POST requests, which will then execute your designated workflow.
Can I pass data from the trigger to my workflow?
Yes. For webhooks, the entire request body is passed as input to the workflow. For scheduled triggers, you can define a static JSON object to be used as the input each time the workflow runs.
How does trigger.do handle webhook security?
Security is paramount. Webhook triggers can be secured using secret keys for signature verification, ensuring that only authorized services can initiate your workflows.