Triggers: start a run when something changes

Updated 18 October 2026

A responsibility normally works on its schedule. A trigger lets it start a run as soon as something changes: an email that matches a rule, a change in a Zoho CRM record, or a deadline coming up. PelQi checks every few minutes without using the AI, and the AI works only once a trigger fires.

Add a trigger

• Open Responsibilities and choose the responsibility.
• Under Triggers, choose Add a trigger, then pick what starts a run (see below) and fill in the rule.
• If the responsibility has more than one job, choose the job the trigger starts.
• Choose Add trigger. Checking starts once the responsibility is active. Only owners and admins of the workspace can add, pause or remove triggers.

What can start a run

• A new email arrives: who it is from (an address, a domain like northwind.example, or a name), words in the subject, or words in the first lines of the email. Fill in at least one. It reads the mailbox of the responsibility's owner, the Inbox unless you name another folder.
• A Zoho CRM record changes: the records (Deals, Leads, Tasks, Accounts or Contacts), the field to watch, and, if you like, the value it must become, such as Negotiation/Review. Leave that empty to react to any change, such as a new amount.
• A deadline is coming up: a Zoho deal's closing date, a Zoho task's due date, a Jira issue's due date, an event in the owner's calendar, or a date the responsibility itself is watching, and how far ahead in days or hours. A date without a time counts as 5pm in the workspace's time zone.

What happens when it fires

• The run starts within a few minutes, with what changed in front of it: the email's sender and subject, or the record with its value before and after, or the deadline, each with a link.
• Its report goes where every report goes: the responsibility's page, your notices and the team channel in Teams, starting with Started by a trigger.
• Anything that leaves the business, such as a reply or a CRM update, still waits in Approvals.
• Each change fires once. The same email, the same new value or the same due date never starts a second run, even after PelQi restarts. If PelQi was offline for a while, each change it missed fires once when it is back, together in one run.

Day to day

• Each trigger shows On or Paused, when it was last checked, when it last fired, and what it found.
• Pause stops a trigger without removing it; Resume starts it again. Remove takes it away.
• Recent firings lists the latest changes and whether a run has read them.
• Activity records every firing, and every trigger added, paused or removed.

Limits

• Up to 5 triggers on one responsibility.
• At most 10 firings from one trigger an hour. Changes past that are recorded as held back and do not start a run.
• At most 3 trigger runs an hour for one responsibility. More changes wait and are read together by the next run, up to 10 changes a run.
• Up to 30 triggers and 15 trigger runs a day in one workspace. A change still waiting after a day is dropped and shows as too old.
• After a long break (more than three days paused or offline) a trigger starts again from now, so old changes are not replayed.

What it can and cannot do

• Checking costs nothing: PelQi asks Microsoft 365, Zoho or Jira only what changed since the last check, and nothing goes to the AI until a trigger fires.
• Email triggers read the owner's own mailbox. CRM and Jira triggers use the owner's own sign-in, so they see what that person can see.
• Triggers react within minutes, not seconds.
• A trigger never sends, changes or approves anything on its own.

If it does not work

• "Checking begins when the responsibility is active": activate the responsibility first.
• A trigger shows a message about reconnecting: the owner's Microsoft 365, Zoho or Jira sign-in needs renewing under Connections. After three failed checks in a row it checks less often until it works again.
• It did not fire for an email: check the email matches every part you filled in (from, subject words and email words all have to match), and that it arrived in the folder the trigger watches.
• It fired but no run started yet: this responsibility has had 3 trigger runs this hour, or its scheduled run was due first. The change waits for the next run.
• "Held back by the hourly limit": more than 10 changes arrived from one trigger in an hour. Narrow the rule so it matches fewer emails or records.