topic Custom Workflow Triggers in APIs & Integrations

Custom Workflow Triggers

DPinson — Tue, 25 Apr 2023 21:44:04 GMT

Hello,

I have a use case that I'm not sure if it is supported by the Hubspot developer platform. I am trying to create a custom workflow trigger that gets added when a user installs my hubspot app. I want this trigger to execute a workflow when a specific action happens within a 3rd party system that my app will integrate with. For example, when a user attends an event that is tracked by the 3rd party system, I want to be able to execute a custom trigger to enroll that person as a contact into the workflow. I see something that kind of does this here. However, it looks like you need the ID of the workflow, which would require additional steps for the user to configure. I see that some apps that are created by hubspot have this additional functionallity of adding custom triggers to workflows, but I cannot find a way to add this to my app. Please let me know if there is a possible solution to this. Thanks!

Re: Custom Workflow Triggers

Jaycee_Lewis — Wed, 26 Apr 2023 16:51:04 GMT

Hi, @DPinson 👋 You can add options from your app to the Actions part of a workflow. Here's the developer documentation — Workflow Extensions Overview.
Connected apps

Best,

Jaycee

Re: Custom Workflow Triggers

DPinson — Wed, 26 Apr 2023 20:07:22 GMT

Thanks for the response @Jaycee_Lewis! However the documents you provided seem to link to a Workflow Action and not a Workflow Trigger. Is there anyway to create a custom Trigger?

Re: Custom Workflow Triggers

GRajput — Fri, 05 May 2023 07:44:54 GMT

Hi @DPinson

Yes, it is possible to create a custom workflow trigger in HubSpot that listens for events from a third-party system and triggers a HubSpot workflow. One approach to do this is to use the HubSpot workflows API to create a custom workflow extension that can listen for events from your third-party system and trigger a workflow enrollment for the corresponding contact.

Here are the general steps you could follow to achieve this:

1. Create a custom integration between your app and the third-party system, using APIs or webhooks to listen for events that indicate a contact has attended an event.

2. Use the HubSpot workflows API to create a custom workflow extension that can listen for these events and trigger a workflow enrollment. You can use the `hs_workflow_extensions` endpoint to create a new extension and specify the events to listen for, as well as the workflow to trigger when the event occurs.

3. When a contact attends an event in the third-party system, trigger the event to the HubSpot API endpoint that you created in step 2. This will cause the custom workflow extension to execute and enroll the contact in the specified workflow.

Note that creating a custom workflow extension requires some development work and understanding of the HubSpot workflows API. You'll need to create a custom app in the HubSpot Developer Platform, define the extension's properties and metadata, and write code to handle the workflow enrollment when the extension is triggered.

Additionally, you may need to work with the user to configure the workflow and associate it with the custom extension, as you noted in your question. But if you can simplify this process as much as possible for the user, it should be possible to provide a seamless integration between your app and the third-party system within HubSpot.

Hope this will helps you out. If, you find it helpful, Please mark it as solution.

Thanks!

Re: Custom Workflow Triggers

SKlein5 — Tue, 17 Sep 2024 12:15:20 GMT

@Jaycee_Lewis
Thanks for the info but I agree with @DPinson - I am not able to find any documentation on creating a custom workflow trigger - Can you help here?

Re: Custom Workflow Triggers

SierraHoward — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 22:23:35 GMT

Hello! I'm Sierra, a product manager on the automation team at HubSpot. I would love to hear more about your use case. I will send you a message 🙂

Re: Custom Workflow Triggers

RBCook — Mon, 29 Sep 2025 11:03:51 GMT

Lovely news - HubSpot App Events have launched at Inbound. They're an update on Timeline Events that allows you to use an App's Events and Event Properties in Workflows and Reports. Per your question, you can use it to initiate workflows and even for branch logic!

Posted about it on LinkedIn here:

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7378338148415741952/
And App Events dev docs are here:
https://developers.hubspot.com/docs/apps/developer-platform/add-features/app-events/overview