How to choose a trigger

The trigger is what sets a workflow off, and every workflow has exactly one. There are two kinds: a record being created, and a record changing. See How to build your first workflow for the whole build.

How do you pick one?

Open Triggers in the step library. The triggers on offer are grouped by the record type they belong to, so a workspace with a Repairs Object sees Repairs triggers.

What appears differs per workspace, because it follows the Objects your team has defined. See What is an Object?.

When should you use created, and when changed?

Created for anything that should happen because a thing now exists. A sample request is logged, so link it to its supplier. A repair is logged, so somebody should look at it.

Changed for anything that should happen because a thing moved. A fabric trial reaches Approved, so tell production. A purchase order's stage moves, so update something.

Created fires once per record, ever, which makes it the safer of the two. Changed can fire many times over a record's life, which is why watched fields exist.

What are watched fields?

On a changed trigger you can tick specific details, so the workflow only fires when one of those changes.

Leave them all unticked and it runs on any change to the record, including somebody fixing a typo in a note.

Tick the ones that matter. A workflow meant to react to a fabric trial being approved should watch the status field alone; without that it fires every time anybody edits anything on the record, and it will.

This is the highest-value five seconds in the whole builder. Almost every noisy workflow is a changed trigger with nothing ticked.

Is there a scheduled trigger?

No. A workflow is a reaction to a record being created or changed rather than something that runs at a time.

When the thing you want is on a rhythm, use a repeating task instead, per How to make a task repeat. When it is a standing watch over your store, use an automation, per What are automations?.

How quickly does it fire?

Not instantly. Changes are picked up on a cycle of a few minutes, and a change originating in Shopify takes an extra poll to be noticed.

Wait a few minutes before deciding a workflow is broken, and check the Runs tab rather than the record.

What can the trigger's record be used for?

Everything downstream. Conditions compare it, actions write to it, and its values can be dropped into a task title or a message.

Every step in a workflow reads and writes the record that started it. Reaching a different record is not something a step does today, and the options panel says so.

That shapes how you design one: a workflow is a reaction to a single record, not a report across many.

Why can I not compare or set some fields?

Because fields that link to another record, such as a task's status, assignee or department, work differently from plain values.

The builder hides them rather than offering something that would not work, and publishing refuses them if one somehow gets in. See How to add a yes/no decision.

Can the trigger step be duplicated?

No, because a workflow has exactly one. Publishing refuses a workflow with no trigger, and one with more than one.