> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.cliqo.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Understand the triggers and who enters the flow

> The six available triggers, who each one enrolls — and the protections that prevent accidental mass sends.

The trigger is the flow's entry door. Understanding **who enters — and who deliberately does not** — avoids the two classic surprises: "why didn't this contact receive it?" and "why did 6,000 people receive it at once?".

## The available triggers

| Trigger | Who enters |
| - | - |
| **New Signup** | Anyone who just signed up **with consent**: popup, form inside the email, manual signup with the box checked, or through the API. Under **Where they came from** you restrict which sources enter (none checked = all of them). |
| **Specific List** | Anyone added individually to the chosen list. |
| **Custom Segment** | Anyone who **enters** the segment from the flow's activation onward. |
| **Abandoned Cart** | Anyone who went to the cart, didn't buy, and stayed inactive for the time chosen in **Wait with no activity** (15 minutes by default, up to 24 hours). Requires the pixel. |
| **Post-Purchase** | Anyone with a paid order, via the store integration. |
| **Date / Birthday** | Anyone on the anniversary of one of the contact's dates — see *A special case: birthdays*, below. |

The **New flow** drawer shows the first five; **Date / Birthday** is chosen in the trigger block, inside the editor.

## The deliberate protections

Three behaviors that look like bugs the first time, but are protection:

* **An import never enrolls on its own.** Uploading a base of 6,000 contacts with an active welcome flow does *not* fire 6,000 welcomes — imported is not a new signup. The same goes for **bulk** additions to a list with a trigger: only individual additions enroll. The only door is explicit: in the import's **Send a welcome flow to these contacts?** step, you can put the **new** contacts of that batch into a segment flow — with email-marketing opt-in declared on the import, and only those who match the segment enter (new sign-up and list flows still show as **Coming soon** there).
* **A segment starts from zero.** When you activate a flow with a segment trigger, whoever was **already** in the segment doesn't enter — only those who enter from then on. Otherwise, activating the flow would be a mass send in disguise.
* **Cart has a repeat interval.** The same customer who abandons a cart every week doesn't get the sequence every week: there's an interval of 7 days between enrollments. With the segment trigger the interval is 30 days; with **Date / Birthday**, once a year.

If you **do** want to send to an existing base, the right instrument is a campaign, not a flow.

## How the contact exits

Besides completing the steps, the contact exits early upon **purchasing** — that is the flows' exit goal. Anyone who unsubscribes or loses consent for the channel also exits. The live funnel shows the two destinations separately: *exited on conversion* and *finished without converting*.

## A special case: birthdays

Birthday has its own trigger: **Date / Birthday**. You choose the contact date field that fires it (only fields typed as Date show up — see [typed fields](https://docs.cliqo.io/en/gestao-de-dados/campos-tipados.md)), **when to send** (on the day, or 1, 3 or 7 days before or after) and **at what time**, in your account's time zone — the send still respects quiet hours. Each contact enters once a year. That's why the field's "date" type matters.

## Related articles

* [Getting started with flows](https://docs.cliqo.io/en/automacoes/primeiros-passos.md)
* [The engine's sending rules](https://docs.cliqo.io/en/automacoes/regras-do-motor.md)


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