Start an agent with a trigger
A trigger starts an agent without anyone sending it a message. Creatio AI Studio offers two kinds, and they work very differently.
Kind | What starts the agent |
|---|---|
Scheduled trigger | The platform's own clock — once, or on a recurring cadence. Needs no bridge app, service account, or API key. You create it on the agent that runs it. |
Connectivity trigger | An event pushed from Creatio, for example, a lead being created. Requires the Creatio-side integration described below, because the events are authored in Creatio rather than here. |
Scheduled triggers are enabled per organization and appear only where they have been turned on. Where they are turned on, an agent that only needs to run on a clock can use a scheduled trigger and skip the integration setup entirely. Read more >>>
Prepare the Creatio integration
This section applies to connectivity triggers only.
Complete these steps once per Creatio instance. Setup works only between environments that can reach each other — either all local or all online.
- Verify that the bridge app is installed. Log in to the source Creatio instance, go to All apps → Workplace setup, and check that the agentic bridge section exists.
- Install the bridge app if it is missing. Open the Application Hub, select New application → Install from file, and upload the latest agentic bridge package.
- Create a service account for Creatio AI. Go to the Security section, open the Service accounts tab, click New, and bind the account to the specific environment.
- Generate an API key. Open the service account, go to its API keys tab, and click Create key. Copy the key immediately — Creatio AI Studio shows it only once.
- Grant permissions. Open the service account, go to its Roles tab, and click Assign. You can work from the other side instead: open the role, go to its Principals tab, click Assign, and pick the service account on the Service Accounts tab.
- Set up the system settings in Creatio. Open System Settings, find the "Creatio agentic platform" folder, and set
AgenticPlatformEventApiKeyto the generated API key andAgenticPlatformServiceUrlto the agentic platform base URL. - Validate the integration by creating a record in Creatio that raises one of the events, then checking that it reaches the trigger catalog.
As a result, Creatio can push trigger events to the catalog. Learn more: Manage users and service accounts.
Review the trigger catalog
- Go to the Triggers section in the navigation panel.
- Review the counters above the list: Trigger events and Trigger groups, joined by Scheduled triggers and Failing where scheduled triggers are enabled.
- Review the list. It holds every trigger, of both kinds, in the columns Trigger, Type, Status, Agents, Environment, Owner, Next fire, Last fire, and Failures.
As a result, you can see which events are available to bind. An empty list means Creatio has not pushed anything yet — complete the setup above first.
An event marked "Unavailable" was removed in Creatio. It stays listed so you can review it before deleting the stale catalog entry. Deleting a stale entry never removes agent bindings.
Bind an agent to a connectivity trigger
- Go to the Agents section in the navigation panel.
- Open the agent the event should activate.
- Open the Triggers tab on the Configure tab group.
- Click Add trigger → Bind an existing trigger.
- Select the trigger type in the Select trigger field.
- Select the event in the Select event type field.
- Map the payload fields in the Field mapping section. Each trigger field maps to an agent input path, for example,
crm.record.id. Without a mapping, the runtime falls back to a generic message. - Click Add binding.
As a result, the event activates the agent. The binding reports its status as "Active" or "Inactive." To remove it, click Unbind.
A triggered agent runs autonomously, so there is no signed-in user to act as. Delegated access is therefore unavailable to an agent that has triggers — an integration set to delegated access fails at call time. Use integration or agent-owned credentials instead. For the same reason, a triggered run cannot use a restricted integration through a grant, so it can call the tools of an integration only while that integration is open to the organization. Learn more: MCP integration.
Bind a group of events
Use a group when several events should activate the same agents.
- Go to the Triggers section.
- Click New group. Enter the Group name and an optional description in the "New trigger group" dialog, then click Create group.
- Add events to the group with Add event.
- Set the default field mapping for each event. It is the starting point for new per-agent bindings created through the group; per-agent overrides survive later changes to the default.
- Bind the group to the agents that need it.
As a result, every agent bound to the group is activated by every event in it.
Add a scheduled trigger
A scheduled trigger runs on the platform's clock, so it needs none of the Creatio-side setup above.
Scheduled triggers are enabled per organization and environment. Where they are not turned on, Add trigger offers Bind an existing trigger alone, and the Triggers section shows no scheduled-trigger counters. Contact your administrator if you need them enabled.
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Go to the Agents section and open the agent that should run.
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Open the Triggers tab on the Configure tab group.
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Click Add trigger → Add scheduled trigger. This opens a four-step wizard: Basics, Schedule, Prompt, and Review.
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Fill out the Basics step.
Field
Field value
Name
How the trigger is identified in the list, on the agent card, and in the execution log.
Description
Optional. Explain what the trigger is for, so a teammate can tell whether it is safe to change.
Environment
Where the schedule runs. Every run it starts happens in this environment.
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Fill out the Schedule step. The Timer section holds the core of the schedule.
Field
Field value
Schedule definition
"Basic" builds the schedule from a start and a cadence. "Advanced" defines it with a cron expression.
Starts
The date and time of the first run. A repeating schedule counts from here.
Timezone
The zone the times are read in.
Repeat
"Once" fires a single time at the start and then completes. "Recurring" fires again on a fixed cadence.
Repeat every
The cadence and its unit. Measured as elapsed time from the start, so it does not drift with daylight saving changes. A cadence in minutes must be at least 30 minutes.
Cron expression
Five or six space-separated fields, read in the selected timezone. Available in the "Advanced" definition. The same 30-minute floor applies — an expression that would fire more often is rejected.
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Add the options you need in the Options section. Everything here is optional.
Option
What it does, and the default
Days of the week
Restricts which weekdays the schedule may fire on. A run that lands on an unselected day is skipped, not moved. Runs all week by default.
Quiet hours
A daily window the schedule must not fire in. An occurrence inside it is skipped and logged, not delayed. The range may cross midnight, for example, 22:00 to 06:00. No quiet hours by default.
Overlap handling
What happens when an occurrence comes due while the previous run is still going. Out of the box the new occurrence is skipped, so a slow run never stacks up behind itself.
Downtime handling
What happens to occurrences missed while the platform was down: "Fire once on recovery" or "Skip missed occurrences." Missed occurrences are skipped by default.
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Set the end condition. A recurring schedule must say when it stops — select "On a specific date" and set the End date field, or select "Never."
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Set the failure guard. The Stop after failed runs field is prefilled with "5." It counts failed runs only and never ends a healthy schedule. Clear it to never stop on failures.
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Enter the additional prompt on the Prompt step, if needed. The text is added to the agent's own instructions on every scheduled run — it does not replace them.
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Review the summary on the Review step. The server computes the summary and the list of next runs from exactly what you are about to save.
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Click Create.
As a result, Creatio AI Studio creates the scheduled trigger and reports "Scheduled trigger created." It appears in the Scheduled triggers section of the agent with its status, next run, and last run.
The Review step is the one place to catch a schedule that never fires. If it reports that the trigger has no future runs, the start, end, or pattern conflict — a start date in the past with an end date before today, or a cron expression that no allowed weekday matches.
Operate a scheduled trigger
Run these actions from the trigger's row, either on the agent or in the Triggers section.
Action | Effect |
|---|---|
Pause, Resume | Stops and restarts future occurrences without deleting anything. |
Run now | Fires one occurrence immediately, outside the schedule, without shifting the timer. |
Delete | Stops the trigger firing and removes it from the agent. The execution history is kept and stays visible on the Runs tab. |
A paused trigger reports why: paused manually, paused after repeated failures, or paused because its owner is no longer active.
If the creator of a scheduled trigger is no longer active, resuming it makes you the owner and its runs use your credentials. Creatio AI Studio asks you to confirm that before it resumes.
Read the run history
Every occurrence is recorded on the agent's Runs tab — the ones that ran and the ones that were skipped, each with its reason: quiet hours, an unselected weekday, an overlap, or platform downtime.
A schedule that looks idle is usually explained there. Learn more: Monitor agent runs and read traces.