Automation triggers

The trigger is the event that puts a contact into your sequence. Every automation has exactly one, and you have to choose it before Klixey will let you add steps.

Quick answer

In the editor, click the trigger card at the top of the canvas. Pick Product checkout or Contact tag, then narrow it — a specific product, or a specific tag and whether it's being added or removed.

Product checkout

Fires when someone completes a checkout. Paid and free both count — a free lead magnet download triggers this exactly like a $497 course purchase.

Product filter:

• Any product — every checkout in your store enters this sequence.
• A specific product — only checkouts for the product you pick.

Use a specific product for anything that reads like onboarding ("you just bought this, here's how to start"). Use Any product for a genuine post-purchase sequence that suits every buyer — a thank-you, a review request, a "what else we make" email.

"Any product" is broader than it looks

It includes free products. If you sell a $997 course and also give away a checklist, an Any product sequence emails both audiences the same thing.

Contact tag

Fires when a tag is added to a contact, or removed from one.

Tag event: Tag added or Tag removed. Tag filter: Any tag, or a specific tag.

Only your own manual tags can be selected. The System tags Klixey creates for imports and product activity are hidden from the picker — they fire constantly and would make a very noisy trigger.

"Any tag" is very broad

Every manual tag change on any contact enters the sequence. That includes bulk tagging from the customer list. Reach for a specific tag unless you genuinely mean "any".

Tag triggers are how you build sequences you control by hand: tag someone Consult booked and a prep sequence starts; tag them Lapsed and a win-back sequence starts.

Klixey asks before a tag change starts a sequence

Once a tag is the trigger for a live automation, changing that tag stops being a quiet edit. Adding or removing it from the customer list or a customer's record raises a confirmation first, telling you how many contacts you're about to enroll.

This matters most for bulk actions. Selecting 400 contacts and applying a tag that triggers a live sequence is a 400-person send, and the confirmation is there to make sure that's what you meant.

Marketing permission and your trigger

An email step only sends to a contact who can receive marketing email. Someone who has unsubscribed, or whose address is suppressed after bounces or complaints, is skipped — the sequence continues, that email just doesn't go out. See Contacts & audiences.

Which means the two triggers behave differently:

A checkout subscribes the buyer. Completing a checkout records marketing permission for that buyer, with the permission source Checkout or purchase. This is what makes the obvious sequence — trigger on a checkout, then send an email — actually reach people.

It only ever promotes someone who has never subscribed. A previous unsubscribe is never undone, and a suppressed address is never overridden by a purchase.

Two things to know before you rely on this

The buyer isn't shown a separate marketing opt-in at checkout, and there's no per-store switch to turn this off. If you sell into a jurisdiction with strict consent rules, factor that in when you build checkout-triggered sequences. We're working on both.

A tag does not subscribe anyone. Tagging a contact organizes them; it doesn't create permission. A tag-triggered sequence reaches only the contacts in that group who were already subscribed — the rest walk the sequence with their email steps skipped.

Changing a trigger later

You can change a trigger while the automation is a draft or paused, the same as any other edit. Contacts already partway through keep going on the sequence as it stands; the new trigger governs who enters from then on.

If the product or tag a trigger points at is deleted, the automation shows the missing reference rather than quietly matching everything. Pick a replacement to clear it.

Related

• Automations overview — lifecycle, plan limits, and how enrollment works.
• Steps — what happens after the trigger fires.
• Contacts & audiences — permission, tags, and Smart Lists.
• Your customer list — where tags get applied.