Triggers
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- UpdatedFeb 1, 2024
- 3 minutes to read
- Washington DC
- Process Designer
Triggers specify when to start running your playbook.
In Playbooks, triggers indicate when your playbook should start running. Each trigger has a type and conditions that, when met, start running your activated playbook.
You can choose a trigger when you create a playbook in Workflow Studio. Start by adding a trigger, which defines the trigger type. Then, set conditions and other options to refine your trigger so that it fires in a way that makes sense for your business process. For more information, see Create a process definition.
If there are no triggers that fit your use case, you can create your own trigger definition instead. For more information, see Create a trigger definition.

Trigger types
In your Trigger Definition [sys_pd_trigger_definition] record, you can choose a trigger type, which determines when your trigger fires. These trigger types represent record operations that can occur in the ServiceNow AI Platform®. The following trigger types are available in your instance by default:
- Record Created
- The playbook runs when a user creates a record anywhere in the ServiceNow AI Platform.
- Record Updated
- The playbook runs when a user updates an existing record anywhere in the ServiceNow AI Platform.
- Record Created or Updated
- The playbook runs when a user creates a record or updates an existing record anywhere in the ServiceNow AI Platform.
Conditions to run
After you add a trigger to your playbook, you can then set conditions and other options that determine when and how your trigger fires.
Option | Action |
---|---|
Conditions | Use the condition builder to create field conditions for when your playbook runs. See Condition builder. |
Run my process | Choose an option for when your playbook runs. Options include:
|
Run on extended | Select this option to trigger the playbook on tables that extend from your selected table. For example, if you enable this option and select the Configuration Item [cmdb_ci] table, your playbook runs when record operations occur on the Server [cmdb_ci_server], Computer [cmdb_ci_computer], and other extended tables. For more information, see Table extension and classes. |
Design considerations
- Create unique filter conditions for record triggers on the same table
- To prevent playbooks from overwriting each other, create unique filter conditions for each playbook that runs on the same table. If multiple playbooks on the same table have the same filter, there is no way to know the order in which the playbooks will run.
- Avoid duplicating triggers used in Flow Designer flows
- Playbooks triggers do not override Flow Designer triggers. For both applications, when the trigger conditions are met, the automated processes run.
- Ignore records added or updated by import and update sets
- Record triggers ignore records that were added or updated by applying an update set or importing an XML file. These operations apply to the entire application or table instead of an individual record.