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

# Triggers

> Control when your agents start working — on demand, on a schedule, by webhook, or by email.

Triggers control when your agents start working. By default, agents respond when you message them — but set up a trigger and they'll run on their own, 24/7, with no maintenance required.

## Trigger types

* **On demand** — @mention or DM Appy.AI in Slack or Teams and your agent gets to work immediately. This is how most interactions happen.
* **Scheduled** — Agents run on a recurring schedule: daily, weekly, monthly, or at a specific time. Great for morning briefings, weekly competitive reports, or monthly performance summaries.
* **Integration triggers** — External tools can kick off your agents automatically. When something happens in another system — like a new lead added to your CRM — your agent handles it.

You can stack multiple triggers on the same agent. A reporting agent might run on a weekly schedule and also be available to message anytime for ad-hoc requests.

<Tip>
  The easiest way to set up triggers is just to ask: "Send me a competitive update every Monday morning" or "Change my daily report to 6am instead of 8am."
</Tip>

## Scheduled triggers

Scheduled triggers turn a one-time request into a standing instruction. Instead of asking your agent every Monday, it already knows it's Monday — and shows up with the answer.

Once a schedule is set, the agent will:

* Wake up at the time you specified (in your timezone)
* Carry out the task exactly as it would if you'd asked in chat
* Deliver the result to your chosen destination (a DM, a channel, or a thread)
* Repeat on the cadence you set, until you pause or remove it

The schedule runs whether your computer is on or off — Appy handles it in the cloud.

### Examples

* *"Every weekday at 8 AM, have Sarah send me a briefing of my calendar and any unread emails marked important."*
* *"Every Monday at 9, have Scout check what our top three competitors shipped last week and post a summary to #competitive-intel."*
* *"On the first of every month, have Lincoln pull an SEO audit on appy.ai and DM it to me."*
* *"Every Friday at 4 PM, ask Piper to surface 15 new leads matching our ICP and drop the list in #pipeline."*

You can include the destination ("DM me," "post in #channel-name"), your timezone if it differs from the default, and any context the agent needs for that specific task.

To change a schedule — time, destination, or cadence — just tell Violet: "stop my Monday competitive check," "move my morning briefing to 7 AM," or "have it go to #leadership instead."

### Managing schedules

Violet is your control panel for scheduled work. To pause, change, or remove a schedule, tell her in chat.

To see what's currently scheduled, visit [https://builder.appy.ai/schedules](https://builder.appy.ai/schedules).

> **Why route everything through Violet?** Violet has full context on your team — which agents you have, what they're good at, and how they connect to your tools. Owning the schedule flow means nothing drifts out of sync with the agent running it.