Triggers: Cron, Webhook, Manual, Event

Four ways to trigger an automation

Chase Agents automations can be triggered by a cron schedule, at a fixed interval, via a webhook from an external service, or by a direct API call. Any automation can also be run manually from the UI at any time.

Cron schedule

Cron schedules use standard cron syntax. Examples: "0 9 * * 1-5" runs every weekday at 9am; "0 0 1 * *" runs the first day of every month at midnight; "30 17 * * 5" runs every Friday at 5:30pm. Use cron when you need to run at a specific time on specific days.

Interval schedule

Interval schedules run an automation every N minutes. Use intervals when you need regular polling or monitoring and the exact clock time does not matter. For example, every 15 minutes to poll an API for new records, or every 60 minutes to run a health check.

Webhook trigger

A webhook-triggered automation runs when an external service sends an HTTP POST request to a unique Chase Agents URL. The incoming request body is automatically available as dataPrev in the first step. This is how you integrate Chase Agents with services that push events — form submissions, payment events, GitHub webhooks, CRM notifications, and so on.

API trigger

Trigger automations programmatically via the Chase Agents API. Send a POST request to the automation trigger endpoint with your X-ChaseAgents-API-Key header. Input data in the request body is available as dataPrev in step 1. This is useful for triggering automations from your own applications or CI/CD pipelines.

Rate limiting

Automations have a default rate limit of 5 executions per 5-minute window. If triggered more frequently — for example by a high-volume webhook — additional triggers are rejected until the window resets. This protects your connected services and your action quota.