Triggers and scheduling
A trigger belongs to a process definition and answers two questions: when does a run start, and what is its due date? Flowstate calls the due date the anchor; every activity offset is measured from it.
Trigger types
Section titled “Trigger types”| Type | Starts a run when | Anchor |
|---|---|---|
| Manual | You publish the process from the app. | The date and time you enter. |
| Schedule | A recurrence rule fires, for example the last working day of every month. | The occurrence’s date and time. |
| Source event | A connected source produces an event, for example a calendar entry. | A field on the event, such as its start time or a custom due-date field. |
| Webhook | An external system calls the trigger’s URL. | Supplied in the request. |
| API | Your own code calls the API. | Supplied in the request. |
Manual, schedule and source-event triggers are available today. Webhook and API triggers can be defined but cannot start runs yet; they will become active together with the public API.
A process can have more than one trigger. Each run records which trigger started it.
Schedules
Section titled “Schedules”Schedule triggers use a recurrence rule and a timezone. If the service was unavailable when an occurrence was due, the misfire policy decides what happens on recovery: catch up all missed occurrences (up to a cap) or skip to the most recent one.
Timezones for anchors
Section titled “Timezones for anchors”The anchor’s timezone determines what “09:00” means for every activity in the run. For source-event triggers you choose the strategy:
- Source event timezone - use the timezone the event carries (a calendar entry created in Oslo stays on Oslo time).
- Trigger timezone - always use the timezone configured on the trigger.
- UTC - treat the anchor as UTC.
Manual triggers use the workspace timezone.
Planning before publishing
Section titled “Planning before publishing”Publishing a run is preceded by a plan: Flowstate shows the resolved date and time for every activity before anything is scheduled, so you can catch an offset that lands on a weekend or a public holiday before the emails go out.