Write Triggers Like a Pro: Your Guide to Crafting Great Scenario Triggers

[#1]

Hey agent builders!

With the launch of Scenarios, you have a powerful new way to make your agents smarter and more responsive to your team’s needs.

Why Scenarios Matter

As agents grow, their logic can become messy and hard to manage. Scenarios solve this by:

• Preventing agent sprawl: Each modular scenario handles a specific case, so your agent stays organized and scalable.

• Cutting down prompt complexity: No more giant, tangled prompts with multiple if-else branch conditions—each scenario has its own clear trigger and instructions.

• Enabling more capable, reliable agents: You can cover more business needs with focused, consistent logic for each situation.

With Scenarios, you build smarter agents that are easier to maintain and adapt as your needs evolve.

Why Scenario Triggers Matter

One of the most important steps in building effective scenarios is writing clear, focused triggers—so your agent can consistently match each user question to the right scenario.

To help you get started, we’ve put together some practical tips and examples for writing scenario triggers that work reliably from day one.

A Scenario Trigger describes the exact situation or intent that should activate your scenario. The clearer your trigger, the more likely your agent will select the right scenario for the question—leading to more accurate responses and helpful answers.

How to Write Great Scenario Triggers

Here are some best practices to help you craft triggers that are precise, reliable, and easy to maintain:

• Be specific about user intent: Clearly describe the situation or question that should activate your scenario.

• Give clear examples: List sample queries that should trigger the scenario, a good rule of thumb is at least 3 positive examples.

• Define boundaries: For more complex cases, add a few examples that should not trigger those scenarios as well, in addition to the positive examples. This helps your agent understand where the scenario boundaries are.

• Single responsibility: Make sure your scenario and its trigger is distinct from other scenarios to prevent overlap, confusion and mis-trigger.

• Test and iterate: Try your trigger with real questions. If it doesn’t behave as expected, update your examples or description and test again.

Use this template for consistency:

Trigger this scenario when [Detailed description]

## Positive examples:
[Example 1]
[Example 2]
[Example 3]

## Negative examples:
[Example 1]
[Example 2]
[Example 3]

Trigger Examples

Before:

If asked to accelerate the rollout of a product to a specific customer

After:

Trigger this scenario when a user requests to accelerate, enable, or troubleshoot the rollout or activation of a product for a specific customer. This includes situations where a customer is unable to access or activate the product despite being informed of its availability, or when a user asks if access can be provided to their customer. The scenario is designed to assist with issues or requests related to making the product available to a particular customer who is expecting or has been promised access.

## Positive examples:
The product should be available, but my customer can't use it
My customer has received a message that they have access but can't activate it
Can we give access to my customer?

## Negative examples:
How do I use product features as an end user?
What are the benefits of the product for my team?
Can I get a demo of the product for internal training?

Before:

When someone asks about technical problems

After:

Trigger this scenario when a user reports a malfunction, error, or unexpected behavior in the product. This includes situations where a user describes something not working as intended, encounters error messages, or experiences a feature failing. The scenario is designed to help users report bugs or technical issues so they can be investigated and resolved.

## Positive examples:
The app crashes every time I try to upload a file—can you help?  
I’m seeing an error message when I log in.  
Why isn’t the dashboard loading for me?

## Negative examples:
Can you show me how to use the dashboard?  
Where can I find the user manual?  
How do I reset my password?

---

We’re excited to see what you build with Scenarios! Try out these tips as you create your first triggers, and let us know how it goes. If you have your own best practices or stories, share them in the comments—we’d love to hear from you.

Happy building!

[Alex Gallien]

Super helpful! I've added the positive/negative examples to all of my scenario triggers now.