Triggers

Quick Summary

Triggers are workflows that can run based on other events that happen in your workspace. Xano offers triggers for:

  • Database operations (adds, edits, deletes)

  • Realtime events

  • Workspace events (currently limited to branching operations)

  • MCP Server connections

Triggers are available on our Starter plan and higher.

What are triggers?

Triggers in Xano are workflows that will run only when triggered by another event. You can build triggers for the following events.

Event Type
Event

Database

New records

Record edits

Record deletes

Table truncate (deleting all records)

Realtime

Channel events

Workspace

New branch

Branch merge

Live branch change

MCP Server

Client Connect

Accessing and Creating Triggers

1

Database Triggers

You can find database triggers on each table by clicking the settings icon in the top-right corner.

Click + Add Database Trigger to create a new database trigger.

You can specify what Data Sources the trigger will execute on. If no data source is set, then it will execute on all data sources.

Select the actions that will activate this trigger.

Inserts Any time a record is added to the table

Updates Any time a record is edited

Deletes Any time a record is deleted

Truncates When the content of the database table is cleared

Finally, you can set up custom filters so that the trigger only runs if the record matches certain conditions. For example, if you only want the trigger to run if a new order is created for a user, or a new user is created with a certain role.

Database triggers have predefined inputs that contain all of the information you'll need to build a workflow based on the database event.

new This is the contents of the new record — if you're adding a record, this will contain the contents of the new record, and if you're updating a record, this will contain the contents of the updated record. On deletes and truncates, this will be empty.

old This is the contents of the old record — if you're deleting or editing a record, this will contain the contents of the record before the change. On inserts and truncates, this will be empty.

action The action that activated the trigger

data source The datasource this trigger has been executed against

2

Realtime Triggers

Realtime triggers are created for each channel. Once you've created a realtime channel, click the + Add Channel Trigger button to create a new channel trigger.

Select the actions that will activate the trigger.

Message Any time a new message is sent to the channel

Join Any time a new connection is made to the channel

Realtime triggers have predefined inputs that contain all of the information you'll need to build a workflow based on the realtime event.

Action and Command This will be either 'join' or 'message' depending on what was responsible for executing the trigger.

Action and Command currently have the same values, but behind the scenes, the values do not come from the same source. We maintain two separate inputs for the purpose of expanding this functionality in the future.

Channel The channel that this command or message is being sent to

commandOptions Any options that are provided with the command being sent to the channel

payload The contents of the command, such as the message body

client An internal client ID

3

Workspace Triggers

Workspace triggers can be created to execute workflows based on certain workspace-wide events. Currently, these are limited to branch changes.

You can find workspace triggers by clicking the settings icon in the top-right corner of your workspace dashboard.

Click + Add Workspace Trigger to create a new workspace trigger.

Select the action(s) that will execute this trigger.

Branch Live Any time a branch status is set to live

Branch Merge When a branch is merged

Branch New When a new branch is created

4

MCP Triggers

MCP triggers can be created to run any time a client connects to the MCP server. This is useful for functions like:

  • Logging connections to the MCP server

  • Dynamically adjusting server instructions based on other data, such as the user who is connecting

  • Restricting tools per connection

You can find MCP triggers by clicking the settings icon in the top-right corner of your MCP server.

Click + Add MCP Server Trigger to create a new MCP server trigger.

MCP Server triggers offer the following inputs:

toolset Contains the server information, such as the name and instructions.

tools[] An array that contains each tool.

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