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.

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.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. Set up the system settings in Creatio. Open System Settings, find the "Creatio agentic platform" folder, and set AgenticPlatformEventApiKey to the generated API key and AgenticPlatformServiceUrl to the agentic platform base URL.
7. 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

1. Go to the Triggers section in the navigation panel.
2. Review the counters above the list: Trigger events and Trigger groups, joined by Scheduled triggers and Failing.
3. 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.
4. Narrow the list. Use the Search field, the status filter ("All," "Active," "Paused," or "Completed"), or Filters. Filters narrows the list by Type, Last outcome, Agent, Owner, and Environment. To sort the list, click a column header. You cannot sort by Environment.

As a result, you can see which events are available to bind and how the schedules you can see are doing. An empty list means Creatio has not pushed anything yet — complete the setup above first.

Important

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

1. Go to the Agents section in the navigation panel.
2. Open the agent the event should activate.
3. Open the Triggers tab on the Configure tab group.
4. Click Add trigger → Bind an existing trigger.
5. Select the trigger type in the Select trigger field.
6. Select the event in the Select event type field.
7. 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.
8. 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.

Important

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.

1. Go to the Triggers section.
2. Click New group. Enter the Group name and an optional description in the "New trigger group" dialog, then click Create group.
3. Add events to the group with Add event.
4. 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.
5. 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.

You can also ask AI Twin to set up a schedule for you in the chat. Read more >>>

1. Go to the Agents section and open the agent that should run.

2. Open the Triggers tab on the Configure tab group.

3. Click Add trigger → Add scheduled trigger. This opens a dialog with four steps. Click Next to go to the next step and Back to return.

4. Fill out the "Name this scheduled trigger" 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. The field is empty until you select an environment. If the agent is not deployed there yet, the schedule starts running once it is. Until then, an active schedule shows the "Waiting for deployment" status on the agent's Triggers tab and in the Triggers section. If the agent stays undeployed through many scheduled runs, the schedule pauses. Resume it after you deploy the agent.

5. Fill out the "When and how it runs" 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. Out of the box, it is today at 09:00. The start date can be up to 1 year after today. In the "Advanced" definition, the field reads Start from: runs before this moment are skipped, and the cron expression sets the times of day.
   Timezone	The zone the times are read in. Your device's time zone is selected out of the box.
   Repeat	"Once" fires a single time at the start and then completes. "Recurring" fires again on a fixed cadence. Out of the box, "Recurring" is selected with a cadence of 1 day.
   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. The largest value is 999 in any unit.
   Cron expression	Five or six space-separated fields, read in the selected time zone. Available in the "Advanced" definition. The same 30-minute floor applies — an expression that would fire more often is rejected.
   End condition	When a recurring or cron schedule stops. Select "On a specific date" and choose the date, or select "Never." The end date can be up to 3 years after today. You must select an option before you continue. A one-time schedule does not ask.

6. Add the options you need in the Options section. Everything here is optional. Click an option under Add an option to add it. Point to an option to see what it does and what its default is. A one-time schedule offers Quiet hours and Downtime handling only.

   Option	What it does, and the default
   Days of the week	Restricts which weekdays the schedule may fire on. Adding the option selects Monday to Friday. Every day and Weekdays only set the common patterns. A run that lands on an unselected day is skipped, not moved. Without this option, the schedule runs every day. The "Advanced" definition does not offer this option, because the cron expression sets the days.
   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: "Skip the new run" or "Allow runs to overlap." Out of the box, the new run 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.

7. Set the failure guard in the Failure guard section. The Stop after failed runs field is prefilled with "5." It accepts a number from 1 to 10. It counts failed runs only and never ends a healthy schedule. Clear it to never stop on failures.

8. Enter the additional prompt on the "Additional prompt" step, if needed. The text is added to the agent's own instructions on every scheduled run — it does not replace them.

9. Review the schedule on the "Review and save" step. The Schedule summary describes the schedule in plain words, and Next 5 runs lists the coming runs. Both are computed from exactly what you are about to save.

10. 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. Each schedule shows its summary, time zone, environment, status, creator, and its last and next run.

To see what the schedule produces right away, click Run once now in the dialog that reports "Scheduled trigger created," then click Run now in the "Run this scheduled trigger now?" dialog. The agent runs if it is deployed in the schedule's environment. The current time must also be outside the schedule's quiet hours and excluded days. Otherwise, the run is recorded as skipped. This is a real run, so the agent can send messages or change records. Follow the run and its output in the agent's execution log. To wait for the first scheduled run instead, click Skip.

Important

The "Review and save" 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.

Set up a schedule with AI Twin

Instead of the dialog, you can describe a schedule to AI Twin in plain language. AI Twin uses the Scheduled Tasks capability.

1. Go to the Home page in the navigation panel.

2. Describe the schedule in the chat. Name the agent, when it runs, how often, and what it should do. For example, "Every weekday at 9, have the collections agent summarize overdue invoices."

3. Answer the questions AI Twin asks about anything missing, such as when the schedule ends. AI Twin uses your profile time zone or your current time zone and names it. If it cannot tell, it asks.

   If a value is outside the schedule limits, AI Twin asks you about it instead of changing it.

4. Review the schedule summary and the next runs that AI Twin shows, then confirm them.

   If the agent is not deployed in the schedule's environment, AI Twin says that the schedule waits for the deployment and offers to deploy the agent there.

As a result, AI Twin saves the schedule, and it appears on the agent's Triggers tab. AI Twin keeps the end date exactly as you state it.

To change a schedule later, ask AI Twin to change its time, days, quiet hours, instruction, or end date, or to pause or resume it. To run a schedule right away or delete it, use the agent's Triggers tab if you can manage the agent's schedules.

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.
Edit	Opens the schedule on the Basics, Schedule, Prompt, and Review tabs. Change what you need and click Save. If you select another environment, Creatio AI Studio asks you to confirm the move. Runs that already started finish in the previous environment.
Delete	Stops the trigger from firing and removes it from the agent and from the Triggers section. Its execution history is kept.

A paused trigger reports why: paused manually, paused after repeated failures, or paused because its owner is no longer active.

note

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.

Find the results of scheduled runs

Every run of a schedule posts its result into one conversation in the AI Twin chat, next to your other conversations. Reply in that conversation to keep working with the agent. Learn more: Work with AI Twin.

On the agent's Triggers tab, Last run shows the outcome of the latest run: "Dispatched," "Skipped," or "Failed." In the Triggers section, filter by Last outcome to find schedules that skip or fail.

To read what happened inside a run, go to the Observability section. A run started by a schedule shows "Scheduled" as its initiator. Learn more: Monitor agent runs and read traces.

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See also

Create a prompt agent

Manage users and service accounts

Creatio AI Studio overview