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# What are events?

Events trigger workflow executions. The event that triggers your workflow depends on the trigger you select for your workflow:

  • HTTP triggers invoke your workflow on HTTP requests.
  • Cron triggers invoke your workflow on a time schedule (e.g., on an interval).
  • Email triggers invoke your workflow on inbound emails.
  • Event sources invoke your workflow on events from apps like Twitter, Google Calendar, and more.

# Examining incoming event data

When you send an event to your workflow, you'll see it appear to the left of your workflow's code, in the inspector

The Inspector

Click on an event to see the incoming event data (the HTTP request, email, or other data, depending on your trigger type) in the trigger step at the top of your workflow:

Event data in trigger step

Pipedream parses your incoming data and exposes it in the variable steps.trigger.event, which you can access in any workflow step.

If you add steps to your workflow, you'll see that step's execution data (logs or step exports) just below the step:

Logs and step exports below Node.js code step

Click on the event in the inspector again to de-select the event, returning to your workflow's code.

# Copying references to event data

When you're examining event data, you'll commonly want to copy the name of the variable that points to the data you need to reference in another step.

Hover over the property whose data you want to reference, and click the Copy Path button to its right:

Copy path GIF

# Copying the values of event data

You can also copy the value of specific properties of your event data. Hover over the property whose data you want to copy, and click the Copy Value button to its right:

Copy value GIF

# Event format

When you send an event to your workflow, Pipedream takes the trigger data — for example, the HTTP payload, headers, etc. — and adds our own Pipedream metadata to it.

This data is exposed as a variable you can reference in the rest of your workflow, using either of these two names:

  • steps.trigger.event
  • event (shorthand reference)

When you click on an event in the inspector, we show you the contents of steps.trigger.event at the top of your workflow, in the trigger step.

You can reference your event data in any code or action step. See those docs or the general docs on passing data between steps for more information.

The specific shape of event varies with the trigger type:

# HTTP

Property Description
body A string or object representation of the HTTP payload
client_ip IP address of the client that made the request
headers HTTP headers, represented as an object
inferred_body_type For example, JSON
method HTTP method
url Request host + path

# Cron Scheduler

Property Description
timer_config String representation of the schedule
timestamp The epoch timestamp when the workflow ran

# Email

We use Amazon SES to receive emails for the email trigger. You can find the shape of the event in the SES docs (opens new window).

# steps.trigger.raw_event

In addition to the formatted object we expose in steps.trigger.event, you have access to the raw, protocol-specific data from the event, as well.

You can access this data in steps.trigger.raw_event. The contents also vary with the trigger type:

  • HTTP : The base64-encoded representation of the raw payload, along with the full incoming URI.
  • Cron Scheduler : same as event.
  • Email : same as event.

# steps.trigger.context

steps.trigger.event and steps.trigger.raw_event both contain your event's data. steps.trigger.context contains metadata about the workflow and the invocation tied to this event.

You can use the data in steps.trigger.context to uniquely identify the Pipedream event ID, the timestamp at which the event invoked the workflow, and more:

Property Description
deployment_id A globally-unique string representing the current version of the workflow
id A unique, Pipedream-provided identifier for the event that triggered this workflow
owner_id The Pipedream-assigned user ID for the owner of the workflow
platform_version The version of the Pipedream execution environment this event ran on
ts The ISO 8601 timestamp at which the event invoked the workflow
workflow_id The workflow ID
workflow_name The workflow name

You may notice other properties in context. These are used internally by Pipedream, and are subject to change.

# Limits on event history

Only the last 100 events are retained for each workflow. After 100 events have been processed, Pipedream will delete the oldest event data as new events arrive, keeping only the last 100 events.

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