In the rapidly evolving world of artificial intelligence, the term "agentic AI" is no longer a futuristic concept—it's a present-day reality. We're moving beyond simple request-and-response models to building intelligent agents that can perceive their environment, make decisions, and act autonomously to achieve complex goals.
But a critical question arises: How do these sophisticated agents know when to act? An agent that can't react to its environment in real-time is just a passive algorithm. The answer lies in a powerful, often-overlooked mechanism: the event trigger. And for building truly agentic systems, the custom event trigger is the secret ingredient.
At trigger.do, we believe that to "Trigger Anything, Automate Everything," you need a robust event-driven foundation. Let's explore how custom triggers are the nervous system for your next generation of AI applications.
At its core, a workflow trigger is the specific event that initiates an automated process. Think of it as the "if" in an "if-this-then-that" statement for your entire software ecosystem. It's the starting pistol for a race.
Most developers are familiar with common trigger types:
These are the essential building blocks of automation. But agentic AI requires something more—a way to react not just to external signals, but to the internal state and logic of your own application.
This is where custom event triggers change the game. A custom event is a signal that you define and emit from your own application code. It’s a way for your application to talk to itself and its surrounding workflows, creating a truly responsive and intelligent system.
Instead of just reacting to a payment.succeeded event from Stripe, your application can emit its own, more meaningful events:
With trigger.do, defining a workflow that listens for these events is incredibly simple. For instance, when a new user signs up in your application, you can emit a user.created event. A dedicated trigger can be listening for precisely this moment.
import { trigger } from "@do/sdk";
// Trigger a welcome email workflow when a new user signs up
const newUserTrigger = trigger.on("user.created", {
name: "New User Welcome",
run: async (event, context) => {
// The event payload contains user data you sent
await send.email({
to: event.payload.email,
subject: `Welcome, ${event.payload.name}! `,
body: "We're excited to have you join us.",
});
context.logger.info("Welcome email sent.", { userId: event.payload.id });
return { success: true };
},
});
Here, the workflow isn't just an isolated script; it's an integrated part of the user lifecycle, initiated by a custom event trigger. This is the cornerstone of event-driven automation and the foundation for agentic behavior.
The true power of custom events is realized when you begin chaining workflows together. The completion or outcome of one workflow can emit a new custom event, which in turn acts as a trigger for the next workflow. This allows you to build complex, stateful automations that were previously impossible or incredibly difficult to manage.
Imagine an AI-powered document processing agent:
This entire multi-step, agentic process is orchestrated seamlessly through a series of dependable triggers. And because trigger.do is built for reliability with automatic retries, detailed logging, and real-time monitoring, you can trust that these mission-critical flows will run successfully.
Every action and state change within your application is a potential event. A user upgrading their plan, a report finishing generation, an anomaly being detected—each is an opportunity to trigger a powerful, agentic workflow.
By embracing event-driven automation with custom triggers, you're not just automating tasks; you're building a system that can intelligently react, adapt, and act on its own. You're unlocking the true potential of agentic AI.
Ready to connect your digital world? Explore trigger.do and start building your first event-driven workflow today.