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Introduction

Triggers are automation rules for your help desk. Each trigger watches for tickets that are created or updated, checks them against the conditions you define, and runs the actions you choose - like setting a status, assigning a team or agent, or adding an internal note - without anyone lifting a finger. The mental model is simple: WHEN a ticket matches your conditions, THEN run these actions. Triggers run in order, top to bottom, and every matching trigger fires. This lets you stack rules - one to route billing questions, another to prioritize angry customers - and they all apply to the same ticket in the order you set. You configure triggers from Help desk settings → Triggers.
Triggers settings page listing existing triggers
Triggers require the Help Desk to be enabled for your agent. If you haven’t set it up yet, see the Help Desk overview.

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How a Trigger Works

Every trigger is made of four parts:

Details

A name and optional description so your team knows what the rule does and why.

Conditions (WHEN)

The rules that decide whether a ticket matches - based on its status, channel, assignee, team, subject, and more.

Actions (THEN)

What happens when a ticket matches - set a status, assign work, or add a note. Actions run in order.

Status

Whether the trigger is Active or Paused. Only active triggers run.

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How Triggers Run (Cycles)

Triggers don’t just run once from top to bottom - they run in cycles. This lets one trigger’s action feed into another trigger’s conditions, so your rules can build on each other. Here’s what happens each time a ticket is created or updated:
1

Scan from the top

Chatbase checks every active trigger in order, top to bottom, against the ticket.
2

Matching triggers fire

Each trigger whose conditions match runs its actions.
3

A change restarts the scan

If any trigger changes the ticket (for example, it sets a new status or assigns a team), the scan starts over from the top. Triggers that hadn’t matched before now get another chance, because they’re re-checked against the ticket’s updated state.
4

Repeat until nothing changes

The cycle keeps restarting until a full pass makes no further change. At that point the ticket is done and the final result is saved.
Ordering still matters. Put the trigger that sets the foundational value (like status or team) above the triggers that react to it, so the reaction gets picked up when the scan restarts.

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Creating a Trigger

1

Open Triggers

Go to Help desk settings → Triggers and click New trigger. A panel opens from the right.
2

Name your trigger

Give it a clear Name (for example, “Route billing tickets”) and an optional Description explaining what it does.
New trigger panel with name, conditions, and actions
3

Set the conditions (WHEN)

Add the conditions that decide when the trigger should run. See Conditions below for every available field and operator.
4

Add the actions (THEN)

Add at least one action to perform when a ticket matches. See Actions below for the full list.
5

Activate and save

Use the Active / Paused toggle to decide whether the trigger runs, then click Create trigger. New triggers are active by default.

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Conditions

Conditions decide which tickets a trigger applies to. They’re organized into two groups:
  • Match ALL of - every condition in this group must match.
  • Match ANY of - at least one condition in this group must match. This group is optional and is combined with the ALL group using AND.
Use Match ALL of for the rules that must always be true (for example, “Status category is New”) and Match ANY of for a set of alternatives (for example, subject contains “refund” or “chargeback”).

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When does a trigger run?

Add a Ticket is Created or Ticket is Updated condition to control when a trigger fires. If you don’t add one, the trigger runs on both create and update.

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Condition fields

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About operators

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Actions

Actions are what the trigger does when a ticket matches. Add at least one; they run in order, top to bottom.

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Managing Triggers

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Ordering

Triggers run in the order they appear in the list. Drag the handle on the left of any trigger to reorder it. Because every matching trigger fires, the order matters when two triggers touch the same field - the later one wins.
Dragging to reorder triggers in the list

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Activate or pause

Use the switch on each trigger row to turn it Active or Paused. Paused triggers stay in your list but don’t run, so you can temporarily disable a rule without deleting it.

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Edit or delete

Open a trigger to edit its name, conditions, or actions at any time. To remove a trigger, use the delete control and confirm - deleted triggers stop running on new and updated tickets, and this can’t be undone.

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Needs attention

If a trigger references something that no longer exists - a deleted team, an archived status, or a removed agent - it’s flagged with a Needs attention badge. Open the trigger and update the affected condition or action to fix it.

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Good to Know

  • Every matching trigger fires. Triggers aren’t exclusive - all rules whose conditions match will run, in order. Use ordering to control which action takes precedence.
  • Triggers run after the ticket is saved. They apply once a create or update is committed, so they never block or fail the underlying ticket change.
  • Only active triggers run. Pause a trigger to disable it without losing its configuration.
  • You can add up to 1000 triggers per agent.