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Introduction

Triggers are available for Workflow applications only.
A plugin trigger automatically initiates your workflow when a specific event occurs in an external system. All you need to do is subscribe to these events through a trigger plugin and add the corresponding plugin trigger to your workflow. For example, suppose you have installed a GitHub trigger plugin. It provides a list of GitHub events you can subscribe to, including Pull Request, Push, and Issue. If you subscribe to the Pull Request event and add the Pull Request plugin trigger to your workflow, it will automatically run whenever someone opens a pull request in the specified repository.

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Add and Configure a Plugin Trigger

  1. On the workflow canvas, right-click and select Add Node > Start, then choose from the available plugin triggers or search for more in Dify Marketplace.
  2. Select an existing subscription or create a new one.
    View how many workflows are using a specific subscription from the plugin’s details panel under Plugins.
  3. Configure any other required settings.
The output variables of a plugin trigger are defined by its trigger plugin and cannot be modified.

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Create a New Subscription

Each subscription is built on a webhook. When you create a subscription, you’re essentially setting up a webhook that listens for events from an external system. A trigger plugin supports creating up to 10 subscriptions per workspace.
A webhook allows one system to automatically send real-time data to another. When a certain event occurs, the source system packages the event details into an HTTP request and sends it to a designated URL provided by the destination system.
Prerequisite: Set the Callback URL Base PrefixDify generates each subscription’s callback URL by combining the TRIGGER_URL environment variable with a plugin-specific path. The default is http://localhost, which external systems cannot reach.Before creating subscriptions, set TRIGGER_URL in your deployment’s environment to a public domain or IP address that external systems can reach, then restart Dify.
Dify supports the following two methods for creating subscriptions (webhooks), but the options available in each plugin depend on how that plugin was designed.
  • Automatic Creation: You select the events you want to subscribe to, and Dify automatically creates the corresponding webhook in the external system. This requires prior authorization via OAuth or API keys so Dify can handle the webhook setup on your behalf.
  • Manual Creation: You create the webhook yourself using the webhook callback URL provided by Dify. No authorization is needed.
Ways to Create Subscriptions
It’s recommended to select all available events when creating a subscription.A plugin trigger works only when its corresponding event is included in the linked subscription. Selecting all available events ensures that any plugin trigger you add to the workflow later can use the same subscription, with no need to update or create new ones.
  1. Select Create with OAuth > Custom.
  2. In the external system, create an OAuth application using the callback URL provided by Dify.
  3. Back in Dify, enter the client ID and client secret of the newly created OAuth application, then click Save and Authorize.
    Once saved, the same client credentials can be reused for future subscriptions.
  4. Specify the subscription name, select the events you want to subscribe to, and configure any other required settings.
    We recommend selecting all available events, but you can always change your selection later from the plugin’s details panel under Plugins.
  5. Click Create.
The displayed Callback URL is used internally by Dify to create the webhook in the external system on your behalf, so you don’t need to take any action with this URL.

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Test a Plugin Trigger

To test an unpublished plugin trigger, you must first click Run this step or test-run the entire workflow. This puts the trigger into a listening state so that it can monitor external events. Otherwise, the trigger will not capture subscribed events even when they occur.