> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.watx.in/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Triggers

> Every event that can start an automation, what it carries, and which ones ignore channel scoping.

An automation has exactly one trigger. It decides when the automation runs, what data
the steps can read, and — for some of them — which channel the run belongs to.

Triggers are grouped in the picker by **source**, because that is how you look for one:
what happens in my inbox, on my Instagram, in my shop.

## Messages

| Trigger                          | Fires when                                                                           |
| -------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **New message received**         | Any incoming message from a contact.                                                 |
| **First message from a contact** | The first time this contact ever messages you, including contacts you added by hand. |
| **Keyword match**                | The message contains one of your keywords.                                           |

## Instagram

Both are locked to Instagram; the channel picker shows the lock rather than a choice.

| Trigger                   | Fires when                             |
| ------------------------- | -------------------------------------- |
| **Instagram comment**     | Someone comments on one of your posts. |
| **Instagram story reply** | Someone replies to a story.            |

## Website chat

| Trigger              | Fires when                                                                    |
| -------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Web chat started** | A website visitor opens the widget and writes. Locked to the Website channel. |

It is deliberately not the same as **First message from a contact**, which fires on all
three channels — a rule meant to greet website visitors would otherwise greet every new
WhatsApp contact too.

## Contacts

| Trigger                 | Fires when                                     |
| ----------------------- | ---------------------------------------------- |
| **New contact created** | A contact is created from an incoming message. |
| **Tag added**           | A tag lands on a contact. Pick which tag.      |

## Inbox

| Trigger                   | Fires when                      |
| ------------------------- | ------------------------------- |
| **Conversation assigned** | A thread is handed to a member. |

## Forms and bookings

| Trigger                     | Fires when                                                                                       |
| --------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Form submitted**          | One of your [forms](/forms/overview) is submitted. Choose one form, or leave it on **Any form**. |
| **Appointment booked**      | Someone books a slot.                                                                            |
| **Appointment cancelled**   | Someone cancels a booking.                                                                       |
| **Appointment rescheduled** | Someone moves a booking to a new time.                                                           |

The three appointment triggers take an optional **Appointment type** filter; leave it
blank for any type.

## Payments

These fire on [Razorpay payment links](/integrations/razorpay) you created.

| Trigger                  | Fires when                                               |
| ------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Payment received**     | A payment link you sent was paid.                        |
| **Payment link expired** | A link ran out of time unpaid — the cue for a follow-up. |
| **Payment cancelled**    | A link was cancelled before it was paid.                 |

## Online store

These fire on a connected [Shopify](/integrations/shopify) or
[WooCommerce](/integrations/woocommerce) store.

| Trigger             | Fires when                                                                                                                                |
| ------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Cart abandoned**  | A shopper started a checkout and went quiet. Raised by a sweep once the checkout has been silent long enough, not by the checkout itself. |
| **Order placed**    | An order came in.                                                                                                                         |
| **Order cancelled** | An order was cancelled at the store.                                                                                                      |
| **Order shipped**   | The store marked an order fulfilled.                                                                                                      |
| **Order refunded**  | A refund was issued.                                                                                                                      |

An automation created from the [store console](/integrations/store-console) is tied to
the store it was built for and only fires for that store's events. One you build by hand
on a store trigger is not tied to any store, and fires for every connected store.

## Schedule

| Trigger           | Fires when                                                |
| ----------------- | --------------------------------------------------------- |
| **On a schedule** | Recurring, by cron expression or `HH:mm` for a daily run. |

<Warning>
  A scheduled automation runs for the **workspace**, not for one person. There is no
  contact and no conversation, so every step that messages or tags somebody has nobody to
  act on. The editor marks those steps as unable to run.
</Warning>

## Channel scoping

Most triggers carry the channel the event arrived on, and the automation's **Channels**
setting narrows which of them it answers. Selecting none means every channel.

Twelve triggers carry **no channel at all** — a form submission, a booking, a payment on
Razorpay's page, a shopper on your store website. For those the channel picker is
hidden, any scope left over from a previous trigger is cleared, and the engine ignores
channel scoping entirely:

`Form submitted` · `Appointment booked` · `Appointment cancelled` ·
`Appointment rescheduled` · `Payment received` · `Payment link expired` ·
`Payment cancelled` · `Cart abandoned` · `Order placed` · `Order cancelled` ·
`Order shipped` · `Order refunded`

Full detail in [Channels and the 24-hour window](/automations/channels-and-window).

## Keyword matching

**Keyword match**, **Instagram comment** and **Instagram story reply** share the same
keyword settings.

* **Keywords** is a comma-separated list. Press <kbd>Enter</kbd> or click away to commit
  the list.
* **Match** is either **Contains the keyword** (the default) or **Is exactly the
  keyword**.
* Matching is case-insensitive.

At run time, an empty keyword list means different things: **Keyword match** with no
keywords can never match anything, while the two Instagram triggers treat keywords as an
optional filter and fire on every comment or story reply. The checks panel flags an empty
list on all three, and activation is refused for **Keyword match**.

If another automation or a [flow](/flows/overview) already listens for one of your words,
the trigger panel says so. Both will fire on the same message.

## What a trigger supplies

Each trigger puts different facts into the run, readable as tokens — the order number,
the payment amount, the form answers, the Instagram post id. The **insert data** button
beside every text field lists only the tokens that particular trigger can supply. See
[Variables and expressions](/automations/expressions).