How to Choose a Workflow Trigger

In this article:

• Overview
• The available triggers
• Narrowing a trigger with criteria
• Things to keep in mind
• FAQs
• Who can do this

Overview

A trigger is the event that starts a Workflow — the "When this happens" half of the automation. When you build a Workflow, you pick the trigger under the When heading. Choosing the right trigger is the most important decision in a Workflow, because it decides exactly when the action runs and for whom. This article explains each trigger and the options it offers.

The available triggers

SuperPath offers eight triggers, grouped by the kind of event they respond to.

People and Team events

• Person joins — runs when a new person is added to your account. Use it for onboarding automations. You can narrow it with criteria such as Role, Position, Manager, country or state.
• Profile is updated — runs when a person's profile changes. This trigger requires at least one criterion (for example, Role changes to a particular value), so it only fires on the changes you care about.
• Person is added to team — runs when someone is added to a specific Team. You pick the Team, and can narrow it further with criteria such as Position, Role, Manager, country or state.

Learning completion events

• Pathway is completed — runs when a person completes a Pathway you choose. You can narrow it with criteria such as level, tag or Instructor.
• Event is attended — runs when a person attends an Event you choose. No additional criteria.
• Form is submitted — runs when a person submits a Form you choose. No additional criteria.
• Content is completed — runs when a person completes a single piece of Library content that you search for and select. You can narrow it with criteria such as level, type or tag.
• Roadmap is completed — runs when a person completes a Roadmap you choose. You pick the Roadmap and, optionally, a specific level, and can narrow it with criteria such as level or tag.

Narrowing a trigger with criteria

Several triggers let you add criteria so the Workflow only runs for people or items that match. Criteria are combined with "AND", so every criterion must be met.

• For person-based triggers (Person joins, Profile is updated) and Team triggers, you can match on Position, Role, Manager, country and state.
• For Pathway triggers, you can match on level, tag and Instructor.
• For Content triggers, you can match on level, type and tag.
• For Roadmap triggers, you can match on level and tag.

Tip: Use criteria to keep a Workflow tightly scoped — for example, "Person joins" AND their country is a specific value — so the action only reaches the right people.

Things to keep in mind

• The Profile is updated trigger must have at least one criterion, or the Workflow can't be saved.
• If a Workflow's trigger is based on a change to a person's Role, it cannot use the Change user role action — that combination is blocked.
• Changing the trigger while editing a Workflow clears the trigger's selected item and criteria, so you'll set those again.
• Each Workflow has exactly one trigger. To respond to more than one kind of event, build more than one Workflow.

FAQs

Which triggers let me pick a specific item?
"Person is added to team", "Pathway is completed", "Event is attended", "Form is submitted", "Content is completed" and "Roadmap is completed" all let you pick the specific Team, Pathway, Event, Form, content item or Roadmap. "Person joins" and "Profile is updated" apply to people generally and are scoped with criteria instead.

Can I trigger a Workflow when a Knowledge article is completed?
Completing a single content item is covered by the Content is completed trigger. A dedicated Knowledge-article trigger is not currently offered as a separate option in the builder.

Do criteria have to all match, or just one?
All of them. Criteria are combined with "AND", so a person or item must meet every criterion you add for the Workflow to run.

Who can do this

Only Owners and Admins can create and edit Workflows (and therefore choose triggers). Managers, Content Managers, People Managers, Instructors, Employees and Restricted users cannot. Workflows are a paid-plan feature, so the option only appears for accounts where it has been enabled.

Updated on: 16/07/2026