Trigger Agents
A trigger is a configured way to invoke an agent without calling its API directly. Without a trigger, an agent only responds to direct calls against its API. Two trigger types are available:
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A Microsoft Teams trigger connects the agent to Microsoft Teams. People in your organization chat with the agent in a personal Teams chat, and replies stream back as the agent produces them. See Connect an Agent to Microsoft Teams.
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A schedule trigger runs the agent automatically on a recurring schedule. Each run sends a fixed message to the agent and is recorded as a transcript, with no reply path back. See Run an Agent on a Schedule.
Each trigger is its own resource on the agent, created, edited, and disconnected on its own, so you can attach several to the same agent. For example, one agent can serve a production Teams bot and a test Teams bot side by side, each through its own trigger.
| Triggers are available for Redpanda-managed agents only. A self-managed agent runs on your own infrastructure and is invoked through it, so it has no Triggers tab. To bring a self-managed agent into Agentic Data Plane for observability and governance, see Set up a self-managed agent. |
After reading this page, you will be able to:
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Describe what an agent trigger is and how a trigger invokes an agent
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Describe how triggers are added, edited, paused or disabled, and removed on an agent
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Interpret the status that an agent’s Triggers tab reports for each trigger
Manage triggers
Triggers live on the agent’s detail page, on the Triggers tab:
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Click Add trigger, pick the trigger type, and fill in its configuration. A Microsoft Teams trigger takes the bot’s application (client) ID, directory (tenant) ID, and a secret store reference to the bot’s client secret. For the full setup, including the Microsoft side, see Connect an Agent to Microsoft Teams.
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To change a trigger’s configuration, edit it on its card. The trigger’s unique ID, derived from its display name at creation, and the trigger’s type are fixed; the display name, description, and type-specific configuration stay editable.
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To pause a schedule trigger without deleting it, click Pause on its card, and Resume to start it again. Only schedule triggers have this control.
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To remove a trigger, disconnect or delete it on its card, depending on its type. Removing it stops the agent from being invoked through that trigger and can’t be undone.
Both trigger types also carry an enabled state that you can set from the Agentic Data Plane CLI or the API, including where the card offers no control. A disabled schedule trigger fires no runs. A disabled Microsoft Teams trigger stops delivering messages to the agent, and Redpanda stops validating its bot credentials and stops updating its status. The card gives no sign that a Microsoft Teams trigger is disabled, and its status stays at the last reported check, so confirm the state with rpk ai trigger list, which shows whether each of the agent’s triggers is enabled.
To manage triggers from the terminal, or to keep them in Git, run the rpk ai trigger commands. See Use the Agentic Data Plane CLI and Manage Resources with GitOps.
A Microsoft Teams trigger also exposes a messaging endpoint: a URL that Teams delivers inbound messages to. Redpanda reports this URL on the trigger’s card shortly after you add the trigger, and you register it with your bot so Teams knows where to send messages.
Trigger status
Adding a trigger does not validate it on the spot. For a Microsoft Teams trigger, Redpanda’s messaging bridge checks each trigger in the background, about every 30 seconds, by validating its credentials with Microsoft, and reports the result. The Triggers tab shows one of three states:
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Pending: No check has been reported yet. A trigger sits here briefly after you add it.
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Connected: The latest check passed. For a Microsoft Teams trigger, this means Microsoft accepted the bot credentials.
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Error: The latest check failed. The message on the card explains the reason, for example, a rejected client secret.
Because the check runs continuously, the status also catches problems that appear later: if a bot’s client secret expires, the trigger flips to Error without anyone sending a message. The tab refreshes the status on its own, and you can also refresh on demand.
A schedule trigger reports the outcome of its runs rather than a connection check. Its card shows the last run’s outcome and the next run time. For the outcomes a run can have, see Run an Agent on a Schedule.
