Help Center · Campaigns & automation · Engagement trigger cards vs. alert rules

Engagement trigger cards vs. alert rules

Two features react to engagement — one advances workflows, one notifies you.

Boxli has two things that react to recipient engagement, and they do different jobs.

An engagement trigger card lives inside a workflow. When a run reaches the card, it parks there and waits for the configured event — first watch, watched to the end, came back, and so on. When the event happens, the run continues to the next step. Use trigger cards to sequence follow-ups off real behavior: for example, wait for the first watch, then send the Gmail follow-up an hour later.

An alert rule is an always-on notification. It watches for the same kinds of events, but instead of advancing a workflow it fires an action — a Slack post, a team email, or an in-app task — every time the rule matches (subject to its frequency setting). Alert rules are managed on the Notifications page for workspace-wide defaults, or in a campaign’s Automations panel for campaign-specific rules. They never advance a workflow.

Rule of thumb: if the recipient should get something next, use a trigger card in the workflow. If your team should hear about it, use an alert rule. The two run independently, so the same watch event can both advance a workflow and post to Slack.

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