What can trigger a rule?

The trigger, set under When, decides which articles the rule checks: new articles in your whole account, a folder or a feed, articles you tag, articles shared to a Team channel, saved web pages, uploads, new Intelligence reports, or articles another rule matched.

The triggers

The When menu offers, in this order: New article in account, New article in folder, New article in feed, New article with tag, New article in Read later list, New article in Team channel, New saved web page, Another rule matched, New Intelligence report and New upload. For a folder, feed, tag, Team channel or rule, a second menu next to it asks which one.

What each trigger reacts to

Account, folder and feed rules check every new article as the feeds deliver it, and the feed list includes your monitoring feeds. New article with tag fires only for tags you add yourself, never for a tag another rule assigned, and a rule's Save to Read later list action doesn't fire New article in Read later list either. New saved web page fires for pages you save with the browser extension, the apps or Save web page, not for pages that arrive by email, IFTTT or Zapier. New upload fires when an uploaded file is saved, New Intelligence report when a report is saved, and New article in Team channel when an article is shared to that channel.

Another rule matched runs your rule on every article the chosen rule matched. When that rule translates articles, yours waits for the translation. A chain stops after ten rules, and a rule that would trigger itself can't be saved. Can one rule perform multiple actions? shows when a chain is the better choice.

Set the trigger

Open the rule in Automate > Rules and pick the trigger under When. A rule started from a feed's, folder's or tag's menu has it set and locked. Rules act on new articles only. Run rule applies an account, folder or feed rule to the latest 1,000 articles. Next, narrow the trigger down with conditions. Why is my rule not triggering? covers a trigger that stays silent.

Rules are a Pro feature, the Team channel trigger needs a Team plan, and New Intelligence report needs Intelligence reports. What are rules? gives the overview, and the blog post on new rule triggers and actions introduces the latest ones.