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Behaviours are defined patterns of customer activity that you want to track and potentially act upon. They capture the moment when a customer exhibits a specific combination of attributes or events that matters to your business.

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What are behaviours?

Think of behaviours as tripwires. You define the conditions, and when a customer crosses that threshold, Trig records it, can fire actions, and creates permanent metadata about when it happened.
Key characteristic: Behaviours are one and done. Once a customer enters a behaviour and either completes it or exits, they cannot re-enter that same behaviour again.
This makes behaviours ideal for tracking milestone moments—things that happen once and carry significance.

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Behaviours vs cohorts

Understanding this distinction is critical:
BehavioursCohorts
One and done—once you leave, you can never re-enterDynamic—you can enter and leave multiple times
Track milestone moments that happen onceTrack current state based on criteria
Create permanent historical recordMembership changes as attributes change
”First time they did X""Currently active”
Example comparison: A “Super User” behaviour captures the moment someone first becomes a super user. Once achieved, it’s recorded permanently—even if usage later declines. A “Super User” cohort tracks who currently meets super user criteria. If usage declines, they leave. If it rises, they rejoin. Both have value. Behaviours give you historical milestones. Cohorts give you current state.

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Why behaviours matter

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Capturing milestone moments

Some customer actions are significant precisely because they happen once:
  • First time creating a project
  • Reaching a usage threshold (100+ actions)
  • Completing a critical setup step
  • Achieving “power user” criteria

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Triggering actions at the right time

When a customer exhibits a behaviour, you can immediately:
  • Notify your team via Slack or webhook
  • Update an attribute in your system
  • Send a follow-up communication
  • Route them into a job

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Building customer context

Every behaviour creates metadata: 
last_entered_[behaviour]     — When they entered
last_completed_[behaviour]   — When they completed
last_exited_[behaviour]      — When they exited without completing
currently_member_of_[behaviour] — Whether they're currently in it
This metadata is available for targeting, filtering, and analysis throughout the platform.

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Qualifying audiences for jobs

Behaviours are often used as qualification criteria: 
Target everyone who has completed "Setup Complete" behaviour
but has NOT completed "First Project Created" behaviour

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How behaviours work

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Entry criteria (audience)

Entry criteria define who qualifies to enter: 
Behaviour: First Strike Moment
Audience:
  - License type = commercial
  - First session date within last 7 days
When someone matches these criteria and hasn’t previously entered, they enter the behaviour.

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Completion criteria

Completion criteria define success: 
Completion criteria:
  - Projects created >= 1 OR
  - Boards joined >= 1 OR
  - Project link clicked >= 1
When someone in the behaviour meets these criteria, they complete. Completion is the positive outcome.

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Exit without completion

If someone is in a behaviour and no longer matches entry criteria (or a time limit passes) without completing, they exit. Exit is the negative outcome.

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The one-and-done rule

Once a customer has entered a behaviour—regardless of completion or exit—they cannot enter again. This serves important purposes:
  • Preserves integrity of “first time” tracking
  • Prevents double-counting
  • Creates clean historical records
If you need to track something that can happen repeatedly, use a cohort instead, or create multiple behaviours with different criteria.

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Configuring behaviours

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Anatomy of a behaviour

FieldDescriptionExample
NameDescriptive name”Setup Moment Reached”
AudienceWho qualifies to enterLicense = commercial, first session within 7 days
Completion CriteriaWhat indicates successCreated project >= 1
Entry ActionsWhat happens on entryNotify team, update attribute
Completion ActionsWhat happens on completionSend webhook, update CRM
Exit ActionsWhat happens on exit without completionNotify team of drop-off

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Building entry criteria

Entry criteria use filter logic: Attribute-based: 
attribute = value
attribute >= X
attribute has any value
Trig metadata: 
currently_member_of_[stage/behaviour/job]
last_completed_[stage/behaviour/job] has any value
Important: Attributes are evaluated historically—existing values are checked. Events are evaluated forward—only new events trigger.

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Entry, completion, and exit actions

Notify team:
  • Send Slack message to a channel
  • Include customer context
Fire webhook:
  • Call an external endpoint
  • Pass customer data
Update attribute:
  • Set an internal attribute
  • Flag status changes

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Common behaviour patterns

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Milestone behaviours

Track significant first-time achievements: 
Behaviour: First Project Created
Audience: All customers
Completion: projects_created >= 1

Behaviour: Power User Threshold Reached
Audience: All customers
Completion:
  - sessions_per_week >= 5 AND
  - features_used >= 7 AND
  - team_members >= 3

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Funnel stage behaviours

Track progression through a conversion funnel: 
Behaviour: Setup Moment
Audience: License = trial
Completion: setup_completed = true

Behaviour: Aha Moment
Audience: completed Setup Moment
Completion: first_value_action = true

Behaviour: Habit Moment
Audience: completed Aha Moment
Completion: return_visits >= 3
Each behaviour’s audience can depend on completing the previous one.

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Alert behaviours

Track conditions that should trigger notification: 
Behaviour: Ultra Superstar User
Audience: All customers
Completion:
  - projects_created >= 10 AND
  - boards_created >= 10 AND
  - users_invited >= 100
Entry Action: Notify sales team in Slack

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Negative behaviours

Track concerning patterns: 
Behaviour: Dropped Off During Onboarding
Audience:
  - In onboarding stage
  - Days since first session >= 14
Completion:
  - Last login > 7 days ago
  - Onboarding objectives completed < 2
Entry Action: Alert CSM

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Behaviours as objectives

Within stages, objectives are actually behaviours under the hood: 
Stage: Onboarding
├── Objective: Created First Invoice (behaviour)
├── Objective: Connected Gateway (behaviour)
├── Objective: Invited Team Member (behaviour)
The mechanics are identical—entry criteria, completion criteria, actions. Within a stage context, they’re called “objectives” and contribute to stage progression tracking.

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Automatic metadata

When you create a behaviour, Trig generates attributes automatically:
AttributeType
currently_member_of_[behaviour]Boolean
last_entered_[behaviour]Timestamp
last_exited_[behaviour]Timestamp
last_completed_[behaviour]Timestamp
You don’t need to create these manually.

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Using behaviour metadata

Job Audience:
  - last_completed_Setup_Moment has any value
  - last_completed_Aha_Moment has no value
This targets everyone who completed setup but hasn’t reached their aha moment.

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Best practices

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Name behaviours clearly

GoodBad
”First Invoice Created""Behaviour 1"
"Setup Moment Reached""Test"
"Power User Threshold""PU”

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Keep behaviours focused

Each behaviour should track one meaningful milestone. Too complex: 
Completion:
  - invoices >= 3 AND
  - payments >= 1 AND
  - team_members >= 2 AND
  - integrations >= 1
Better as separate behaviours:
  • “First 3 Invoices Created”
  • “First Payment Received”
  • “Team Collaboration Started”
  • “Integration Connected”

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Use behaviours for “first time” tracking

The one-and-done nature makes behaviours perfect for first-time events.

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Plan sequences carefully

Because behaviours can’t be re-entered, plan thoughtfully:
  1. Define each stage as a separate behaviour
  2. Use completion of previous as entry criteria for next
  3. Consider what happens to people who skip stages

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Don’t duplicate Trig metadata

You don’t need to create “entered_X = true” attributes manually—Trig creates them automatically.

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Common questions

You can, but changing criteria affects historical interpretation. Better to create a new behaviour with updated criteria.
The one-and-done design preserves milestone tracking integrity. Use cohorts for repeated entry.
Use threshold behaviours: “First time”, “5+ times”, “10+ times” as separate behaviours. Or use cohorts for current state.
Objectives are behaviours within stages. Same mechanics, but objectives carry additional meaning for stage progression.
Yes. Entry, completion, and exit actions fire as soon as the condition is met.
Events are forward-only. Attributes are historical.

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Summary

Behaviours capture milestone moments in the customer journey:
  1. One and done — Customers can only enter each behaviour once
  2. Trigger actions — Notify teams, fire webhooks, update attributes
  3. Build context — Every behaviour creates permanent metadata
  4. Qualify audiences — Use behaviour history for downstream targeting
  5. Sequence thoughtfully — Plan behaviour dependencies carefully
Used well, behaviours create a rich tapestry of customer context that powers intelligent, timely interventions.