Triggers

Every workflow starts with a trigger. NodeLoom provides 37 trigger types that determine when and how your workflow runs -- from simple manual clicks to real-time event streams.

Manual Trigger

The simplest trigger. Click the Test button in the canvas toolbar to fire it. Useful during development, for one-off tasks, or as the entry point for workflows you invoke via the API.

Webhook Trigger

Exposes a unique HTTPS endpoint that external services can POST (or GET) to. When a request arrives, the workflow executes with the request body, headers, and query parameters available as $json.

NodeLoom auto-generates a secure token for each webhook URL, so only requests with the correct token are accepted. You can also restrict by HTTP method, IP allowlist, and required headers.

https://your-instance.nodeloom.app/webhook/<workflow-id>/invoke?token=<webhook-token>

Webhook Signature Verification

Many services sign their webhook payloads so you can verify authenticity. NodeLoom supports automatic signature verification for popular providers:

Schedule Trigger (Cron)

Run workflows on a recurring schedule using standard 5-field Unix cron syntax: minute hour day month weekday.

# Every day at 9:00 AM
0 9 * * *

# Every 15 minutes
*/15 * * * *

# Monday through Friday at 6:00 PM
0 18 * * 1-5

# First day of every month at midnight
0 0 1 * *

Each schedule trigger includes a timezone selector. The cron expression is evaluated in the chosen timezone, so a "9 AM" schedule in America/New_York fires at 9 AM Eastern regardless of the server's system timezone.

Chat Trigger

The Chat Trigger activates when a message is sent through the Agent Chat interface or an embedded chat widget. The incoming message, conversation ID, and session metadata are available as the trigger output. This is the primary trigger for AI Agent workflows.

Google Suite Triggers

Native triggers for Google Workspace services:

• Gmail Trigger: Fires when a new email arrives, with optional label/sender filters.
• Google Calendar Trigger: Fires on new, updated, or deleted calendar events.
• Google Drive Trigger: Fires when files are created, modified, or shared in a specific folder.
• Google Sheets Trigger: Fires when rows are added or modified in a spreadsheet.
• Google Forms Trigger: Fires when a new form response is submitted.

AWS Triggers

Connect directly to AWS event sources:

• S3 Trigger: Fires on object created/deleted events in an S3 bucket.
• SQS Trigger: Polls an SQS queue and fires for each message (or batch).
• SNS Trigger: Subscribes to an SNS topic and fires on each published message.

Message Queue Triggers

For event-driven architectures, NodeLoom supports consuming from popular message brokers:

Database Triggers

React to changes in your databases:

• MongoDB Trigger: Uses change streams to fire on insert, update, or delete operations in a collection.
• PostgreSQL Trigger: Listens to PostgreSQL NOTIFY events on a configured channel.

File System Triggers

Monitor remote file systems for changes:

• FTP Trigger: Polls an FTP server directory for new or modified files.
• SFTP Trigger: Same as FTP but over SSH for secure file transfer monitoring.

Productivity Triggers

Triggers for popular productivity and project management tools:

• Slack Trigger: Fires on new messages, reactions, or slash commands in a Slack workspace.
• GitHub Trigger: Fires on push, pull request, issue, or release events via GitHub webhooks.
• Jira Trigger: Fires on issue created, updated, or transitioned events.
• HubSpot Trigger: Fires on contact, deal, or company lifecycle changes.
• Salesforce Trigger: Fires on record create/update via Salesforce streaming API.