Triggers
Triggers automate agent execution. Run agents on schedules, when files change, or via webhooks. No manual intervention needed.
Trigger Types
- Cron — Run on a schedule (daily, weekly, etc.)
- Watch — Run when files change
- Webhook — Run when an HTTP request arrives
Cron Triggers
Run agents on a schedule using cron syntax:
ayo trigger create daily-report \
--cron "0 9 * * *" \
--agent @reporter \
--prompt "Generate daily status report"
This runs @reporter every day at 9am.
Cron Syntax
| Field | Values |
|---|---|
| Minute | 0-59 |
| Hour | 0-23 |
| Day of Month | 1-31 |
| Month | 1-12 |
| Day of Week | 0-6 (Sunday=0) |
Common Schedules
| Schedule | Cron |
|---|---|
| Every hour | 0 * * * * |
| Daily at 9am | 0 9 * * * |
| Weekdays at 6pm | 0 18 * * 1-5 |
| Monday at 8am | 0 8 * * 1 |
| First of month | 0 0 1 * * |
Watch Triggers
Run agents when files appear or change:
ayo trigger create invoice-processor \
--watch ~/Invoices/*.pdf \
--agent @processor \
--prompt "Process invoice: {{.path}}"
When a PDF appears in ~/Invoices/, @processor runs automatically.
The file path is available as {{.path}}.
Webhook Triggers
Run agents via HTTP requests:
ayo trigger create slack-handler \
--webhook /slack/events \
--agent @slack-responder \
--prompt "Handle Slack event: {{.body}}"
Request body is available as {{.body}}.
Trigger Flows
Triggers can run entire flows, not just single agents:
ayo trigger create daily-digest \
--cron "0 18 * * 1-5" \
--flow team-digest
List Triggers
ayo trigger list
View Trigger Details
ayo trigger show daily-report
Delete a Trigger
ayo trigger delete daily-report
Example: Automated Document Pipeline
# Watch for new documents and process them
ayo trigger create incoming-docs \
--watch ~/Incoming/*.pdf \
--flow document-pipeline \
--input '{"file": "{{.path}}"}'
Now any PDF dropped in ~/Incoming/ automatically goes through
classification, extraction, validation, and filing.
Example: End-of-Day Reporting
# Generate daily summary at 5pm on weekdays
ayo trigger create eod-summary \
--cron "0 17 * * 1-5" \
--agent @summarizer \
--prompt "Generate end-of-day summary for today's completed tickets"
Starting the Daemon
Triggers require the ayo daemon to be running:
ayo sandbox service start
The daemon manages sandboxes, monitors file watchers, and executes scheduled triggers.
Next Steps
- Flows — Create workflows to trigger
- CLI Reference — Full trigger command options