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Trigger Another Workflow

The "Trigger Another Workflow" action allows you to initiate a separate, pre-configured NeoAgent workflow from within your current workflow. This enables you to create modular and reusable automation sequences.

Why is it useful?

This action is useful for breaking down complex automation processes into smaller, manageable, and reusable workflows. For example, you could have a main Scheduled workflow that identifies Tickets that need to be Dispatched and then, for each ticket, triggers a specialized workflow (that behaves like a Triggered workflow) for Dispatching. This promotes better organization and easier maintenance of your automations.

info

This action is available only as an action within a Scheduled workflow. It is used to trigger other Triggered workflows which will then process individual entities.

What It Does​

The "Trigger Another Workflow" action, used within a Scheduled workflow, takes a list of PSA tickets and a target workflow ID as input. For each ticket in the list, it initiates an individual execution of the specified target workflow, making that target workflow behave as if it were triggered for that single ticket.

How It Works​

1. Input Data​

Within a Scheduled workflow, this action typically receives a list of PSA tickets from a preceding "Find Entities" action. It also requires the ID of the target workflow you intend to trigger for each of these tickets, and an option to bypass that target workflow's own ticket filter conditions.

2. Workflow Initiation​

For each ticket in the provided list, NeoAgent prepares to trigger the target workflow. It retrieves the definition of the target workflow using its ID.

3. Event-Driven Trigger for Each Entity​

NeoAgent then uses an internal event-driven mechanism to start an independent instance of the target workflow for each individual ticket. This ensures that each ticket is processed separately by the triggered workflow, much like a standard Triggered workflow would handle a single incoming event or entity. The bypass_filter_ticket_conditions setting determines if the target workflow's initial filters are ignored for these individual ticket processing instances.

4. Output​

The action outputs a confirmation message indicating how many tickets the target workflow was triggered for. This message is available for subsequent actions or for logging purposes within the parent Scheduled workflow.

Configuration Fields​

When you add the "Trigger Another Workflow" action to a Scheduled workflow, you'll configure the following:

workflow_id_to_trigger​

The unique identifier (ID) of the NeoAgent workflow that you want to trigger for each entity found by the parent Scheduled workflow. You can find the workflow ID in the URL when editing the target workflow or on the main Workflows page.

bypass_filter_ticket_conditions​

Determines whether to ignore the "Ticket Filter Conditions" of the target workflow when it's triggered for each individual entity. If set to True (default), the target workflow will be executed for all tickets passed to this action, regardless of the filters defined within that target workflow. This is useful if the parent Scheduled workflow has already filtered the tickets appropriately. If set to False, the target workflow will apply its own "Ticket Filter Conditions" to each ticket, and only execute if a ticket meets those criteria. (default: True)

Output Fields​

This action makes the following information available to subsequent actions in the parent Scheduled workflow:

default_messages_for_dashboard​

A list of messages detailing the outcome of the action, suitable for display in the Neo Dashboard's Event History. This typically includes a summary of how many tickets the target workflow was triggered for.

default_messages_for_msp​

A list of messages detailing the outcome of the action, intended for MSP internal use. These messages can be used, for example, in a subsequent "Add Ticket Note" action within the parent Scheduled workflow.

default_messages_for_end_client​

A list of messages intended for the end client. This action typically does not produce messages directly for the end client, as the triggered workflow would handle any client communication. (default: empty list)

credits_consumed​

The number of NeoAgent credits consumed by this action.

Use Cases​

Automated Ticket Dispatching​

A Scheduled workflow uses "Find Entities" to identify all newly created, unassigned tickets. The "Trigger Another Workflow" action then initiates a dedicated "Dispatch Workflow" for each of these tickets. This target "Dispatch Workflow" (which processes one ticket at a time) would contain actions like "Ticket Dispatch (Suggest Technician)" followed by "Assign Ticket to Technician" to ensure tickets are routed appropriately.

Conditional Escalation Workflow​

A Scheduled workflow finds tickets meeting certain criteria (e.g., overdue, high negative sentiment). The "Trigger Another Workflow" action then initiates a specialized "High Priority Escalation Workflow" for each of these specific tickets. The escalation workflow would then handle the individual ticket's escalation logic.

Modular Issue Resolution​

A Scheduled workflow with an "Identify Repeated Issues" action detects a common problem across multiple tickets. Instead of having a monolithic workflow, it uses "Trigger Another Workflow" to start a specific "Automated Fix Workflow for Problem X" for each of the identified tickets.

Best Practices​

  • Design Target Workflows for Single Entities: The workflow specified by workflow_id_to_trigger should be designed as if it were a Triggered workflow, expecting to process one entity (e.g., one ticket) at a time.
  • Ensure Target Workflow is Ready: Before using this action, make sure the target workflow is correctly configured, tested, and enabled in NeoAgent.
  • Understand bypass_filter_ticket_conditions: Carefully consider this setting. If the parent Scheduled workflow already precisely filters the tickets, setting bypass_filter_ticket_conditions to True is usually appropriate. If the target workflow has specific entry criteria that must always be met even for these individually triggered instances, set it to False.
  • Monitor Both Workflows: When troubleshooting, check the Event History for both the parent Scheduled workflow and the individual instances of the target workflow that were triggered.
  • Avoid Infinite Loops: Be cautious not to create configurations where Scheduled Workflow A triggers Target Workflow B, and Workflow B (or a subsequent workflow it triggers) could somehow cause Workflow A to re-process the same entities in a loop.
  • Consider Sequential Processing in Parent Workflow: If the "Find Entities" action in your Scheduled workflow might return a very large number of tickets, and the triggered target workflows perform resource-intensive tasks, you might still want to enable "Process Entities Sequentially" in the trigger settings of the parent Scheduled workflow. This controls how the parent workflow iterates through its found entities before invoking the "Trigger Another Workflow" action for each.