Triggers
The five ways an automation can fire, and how to pick the right one.
The When box decides what makes your automation post. Pick the mode first, because everything else in the builder adapts to it.
Which one do I want?
| I want to... | Use |
|---|---|
| Answer a question people ask in their own words | Close enough wording |
Give members a command like !poll or !suggest | Starts with a command |
| Match something very specific, like an invite link or an order number | Pattern (regex) |
| Turn a whole channel into a suggestion box or a showcase | Watch a channel |
| Post a panel of buttons once and leave it there | You post it yourself |
Close enough wording
The default, and the one most automations want. You type a phrase, Tickety fires when someone says something similar enough.
- Trigger:
how do i open a ticket - Fires on:
How do I open a ticket?,how to open ticket,how do i open tickets - Does not fire on:
where are the rules
The match percentage slider decides how close is close enough. 85 percent is a good starting point.
Lower it too far and unrelated messages start firing. If an automation answers things it should not, raise the percentage before anything else.
This mode can also read text out of images. See OCR below.
Starts with a command
For anything shaped like a command. The message has to start with your trigger, and there is no guessing involved.
- Trigger:
!poll - Fires on:
!poll,!poll should we do movie night - Does not fire on:
can we !poll this,poll
The word has to end where your trigger ends, so a trigger of !poll does not fire on !polling. If two commands both match, the longer one wins, which means !ticket close beats !ticket.
This is the mode to use with arguments. A command that takes a question, a list of choices or a user is where automations get powerful.
Capitals have to match is off by default, so !Poll and !poll both work.
Pattern (regex)
For exact shapes rather than words: an order number, an invite link, a serial code.
- Trigger:
discord\.gg/\w+ - Fires on: any message containing an invite link
The dashboard checks your pattern as you type and tells you if it cannot be used. Patterns that would match literally everything are rejected, because they would fire on every message in your server.
Watch a channel
No text matching at all. Every message a member posts in the channels you pick fires the automation.
This is what a suggestion box is made of: someone posts an idea, and Tickety puts vote buttons under it.
Bots are ignored, and so is the automation's own output, so it cannot answer itself.
A channel you point an automation at belongs to that automation. A message there will not also be weighed against your other triggers, so a suggestion stays a suggestion even if it happens to look like an FAQ question.
You post it yourself
Nothing a member types fires this one. You write the message in the dashboard, press Send the Panel, and pick a channel. That posted message is the automation.
Use it for anything permanent: a self role picker, a rules panel with links, a vote that stays open.
Build the message and its buttons
Write it under Automation Reply and add your button groups in the Then box.
Send it
Press Send the Panel and choose a channel.
Edit it later
Save the automation and the posted message updates itself. You do not need to send it again.
Two things need a fresh send: moving the panel to another channel, and switching your reply between the embed style and the components style. Discord does not allow either on a message that is already posted. Sending again posts a new message, and any votes on the old one start over, because votes belong to the message they were cast on.
Options every trigger has
Reading text in images
OCR Trigger Detection reads the text out of the first image in a message and matches your trigger against it too, so a screenshot of an error still finds its answer.
It is available on Close enough wording and Pattern (regex) only. Nobody types a command inside a screenshot, so it does not appear for command triggers.
OCR uses AI Credits. See the plans page for how credits work.
Delete the member's message
Removes the message that fired the automation. Handy for command triggers, where the command itself is noise once Tickety has answered.
Conditions
Under Conditions you can narrow where an automation applies:
- Allowed channels: it only fires in these.
- Ignored channels: it never fires in these.
- Only inside tickets: it only fires in ticket channels.
- Required roles 👑: only members with these roles can fire it, matching any of them or all of them.
Only one fires
One message fires at most one automation, so replies never stack up. When more than one could match, Tickety picks in this order:
- A watched channel automation, if the message is in one of its channels
- A command, longest matching command first
- A pattern
- Close enough wording, best match first