Greetings & keyword replies

Why use a trigger instead of the prompt

Triggers handle things you want to be deterministic — the same greeting every time, an exact reply for an exact keyword — rather than relying on the model to phrase it the same way each time. They're created on the agent's Triggers tab. Note that triggers are create-only: to change one, delete it and create a new one rather than editing in place.

Greeting trigger

The message shown when a new conversation starts. This is what populates the greeting bubble on the website widget when a visitor opens the chat for the first time.

Keyword trigger

A keyword plus a fixed reply. Any customer message containing the keyword gets that exact reply — this bypasses retrieval and the model entirely, so it's instant and 100% predictable. Use it for things like an exact refund policy line, a link you always want given verbatim, or an "are you a robot" style disclaimer, where you don't want any model-introduced variation.

Scheduled triggers

For time-based automation (run a prompt on a timer, or fire a tool on a schedule) rather than something a customer's message triggers, see Scheduled triggers.