Triggers

Skip runs when there is nothing to do, so recurring tasks cost almost nothing on quiet days.

A trigger is a cheap pre-check in front of a scheduled task. Before each run, Henry performs one read-only probe, such as “is there any unread email since the last run?” or “are there issues in the Triage state?”. If the answer is no, the run is skipped.

Skipped runs are nearly free, so a task can check every hour without spending credits when nothing changed.

How triggers are created

Henry authors the trigger when it sets up a task, if the task has a shape that allows it. You see it on the task page as a plain-English Trigger sentence. Not every task can have one. A task whose work is “elapsed time” (a weekly audit) or that spans several accounts at once runs every time.

What you see

• The task page shows the Trigger sentence, with the hint that skipped checks appear in Recent runs.
• Skipped runs appear in Recent runs as skipped rows.
• Run now and previews always run the real task and ignore the trigger.

Safety

A trigger cannot silence a task forever. Henry forces a full run periodically even when the probe says “nothing to do”, so a wrong predicate surfaces as an unnecessary run rather than as a task that quietly never fires.

Editing a task’s instructions removes its trigger until the task is set up again, because the pre-check may no longer match the work.