---
title: "Workflow Triggers"
slug: "workflows-and-guides"
updated: 2026-08-12T20:08:20Z
published: 2026-08-12T20:08:20Z
canonical: "help.gladly.com/workflows-and-guides"
---

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

# Workflow Triggers

Workflows don't run on their own. To activate a workflow, you connect it to a trigger inside a Gladly Agent. Triggers tell Gladly when to run the workflow during a Conversation.

You configure triggers from the **Workflow Triggers** tab within a Gladly Agent.

![Gladly interface showing workflow triggers and options for automation settings.](https://cdn.us.document360.io/7047b671-c4f2-4df0-bb0a-b9b511fd2452/Images/Documentation/workflow triggers select.png)

## Available triggers

Three triggers are available:

**Before First Message** runs the workflow before your Gladly Agent processes the first message in a conversation. The workflow takes control at the start of the session and completes its steps before the Agent begins. Use this trigger for things that should happen on every new conversation: sending a greeting or disclosure, filtering spam, collecting routing information, or identifying the Customer.

**Before Handoff** runs the workflow when your Gladly Agent decides to hand off to a team member. The workflow takes control before the handoff is completed and can collect additional information, send a message, or redirect the conversation entirely. Use this trigger to gather context before a team member takes over, or to intercept handoffs that shouldn't go through, such as contacts outside of business hours.

![Workflow triggers for SMS disclosure and customer information confirmation settings.](https://cdn.us.document360.io/7047b671-c4f2-4df0-bb0a-b9b511fd2452/Images/Documentation/triggers.png)

**On Customer Idle** runs a workflow after a conversation has gone quiet for a set amount of time. You choose the workflow to run and how many seconds of customer inactivity should pass after Gladly's last message before it fires, with a minimum of 10 seconds.

This trigger was built for sending a CSAT survey once the AI finishes helping and the customer goes silent (see [Set Up Simplesat for Workflows](/product-docs/docs/set-up-simplesat-for-workflows)), but it isn't limited to surveys. Use it any time you want a workflow to run automatically after a period of customer inactivity.

## How to connect a workflow to a trigger

1. Open the Gladly Agent you want to configure.
2. Click the **Workflow Triggers** tab.
3. Under the trigger you want to use, click **Add workflow to Before First Message** or **Add workflow to Before Handoff**. For **On Customer Idle**, select a workflow from the dropdown and enter the idle timeout in seconds.
4. Select the workflow from the dropdown (Before First Message and Before Handoff).
5. Click **Save**.

You can add more than one workflow to Before First Message or Before Handoff. Workflows run in the order they are listed.

## Workflows across Gladly Agents

A workflow is agnostic of where it's used. The same workflow can be connected to multiple triggers across multiple Agents. What happens when a workflow ends depends on which trigger ran it: a Before First Message workflow hands control back to the Agent, a Before Handoff workflow either completes the handoff or redirects it based on your Stop configuration, and an On Customer Idle workflow runs independently of the conversation's normal flow, since it fires after the Agent has already finished responding.

> [!WARNING]
> Creating a workflow does not automatically connect it to anything
> 
> Until a workflow is added to a trigger, it will not run.

*Conversation*

or

*Conversations*

(with a capital "C") provides a holistic view of Customer communications and interactions contained in the Conversation Timeline.

*Customer* or C*ustomers* refers to the people you support through Gladly who buy or use your products or services.