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File-triggered workflows

Kick off a workflow automatically when a file arrives.

A workflow can start on its own the moment a file lands in your workspace. This connects the Files area to the Workflows area: a file arriving is an event, and a workflow can listen for it. The listener is the File Received trigger, which fires for a file no matter how it arrived, whether by manual upload, over SFTP, or through the workspace's shared email address.

Turn triggering on at upload

When you upload from the Home Files page, the Upload Files dialog controls whether that upload can start a workflow:

  1. Click the Import button and add your files.
  2. Leave the Trigger Workflows checkbox at the bottom of the dialog selected. It is on by default.
  3. Click Submit.

With the box selected, each uploaded file is offered to any workflow whose File Received trigger matches it. Clear the box when you want to store files quietly without setting automations off.

The Upload Files dialog footer with the Trigger Workflows checkbox selected, next to Cancel and Submit, and a file row noting No workflows to be triggered.
The Trigger Workflows checkbox: leave it on to let an uploaded file start a matching workflow.

Match the right files

The File Received trigger does not fire for every file. When you build the workflow, you narrow it with conditions so only relevant files start a run. Available conditions include:

ConditionMatches on
File extensionThe file type, such as csv or json
Name includesA substring anywhere in the file name
Starts withA prefix on the file name
Ends withA suffix on the file name
Matching regexA regular expression over the file name
ProviderThe named data provider

A run starts only when an arriving file satisfies the conditions you set, so a workspace can hold many file-triggered workflows that each react to a different kind of file.

The File Received trigger configuration with a File Extension field, a File Matching Logic section offering Pattern builder and Regular Expression with Starts with, Name includes and Ends with fields, and a Provider field.
The File Received trigger: filter by extension, a name pattern (or regex), and provider.

Files cannot be attached to tasks. If you want a file to drive downstream work, route it through a File Received workflow rather than looking for a task attachment.

Build the workflow

The trigger is one action in a larger flow. Add a File Received trigger as the workflow's starting action, set its conditions, then add the steps that parse, transform, or load the file. For the mechanics of assembling actions, see the workflow guides.

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