Proactive Triggers reference › Proactive Triggers › Manage people and work › Conversational Interfaces

Release: Australia · Updated: 2026-03-12 · Official documentation · View source

Proactive Rule form

When creating a Proactive Triggers rule, the Proactive Rule form includes the following fields.

Field	Description
Name	Name of the new rule that you want to create.
Type	Proactive Triggers conversation type for end users. Choices are:- Virtual Agent Rules are triggered when the Virtual Agent is available. - Live Agent only Rules are triggered when the web client is configured to live agent only. You can configure the web client to live agent only from the Service Portal. For instructions, see Configure Agent Chat in a portal.
Description	Rule description.
Order	Order of when a Proactive Triggers rule is to be applied. If there’s more than one rule, the rules with lower numbers for a particular delay time are applied first.
Active	Option to activate the rule.
When to run the trigger
Frequency	How often the rule should be applied. Choices are:- Every time: Every time an end user visits the page. - Once per visit: Every time an end user visits a page per user log in. - Once per user: Applies the rule only the first time that an end user visits the page. With this frequency setting, you must clear the rule's history if you want to run this rule again for a user. For more information about clearing the rule history, see Multiple Proactive Triggers rules and actions.
Delay time	Time to wait before the rule is applied. Choices are:- None - 10 seconds - 20 seconds - 30 seconds - 1 minute - 3 minutes
What initiates the trigger
Trigger type	System API or web browsing URL for the type of trigger. Select the lookup list icon ( Image omitted: look-up-icon.png Lookup using list icon.) to view your default choices.</p> If enabled, your default system API choice is Search Event. This trigger type triggers an action when no search results are found on the Service Portal or Employee Service Center. Tip: Ensure that your Proactive Trigger business rule (Proactive Trigger on Search), trigger type (Search Event), rule (Search - No Search Result), and action (No Search Result Message) have the Active option turned on so that this rule runs effectively. These parameters default to inactive. Your default web browsing URL choices are: Catalog item: Triggers an action based on the catalog item's reference fields. Knowledge: Triggers an action based on the knowledge article's reference fields. Portal home: Triggers an action based on the portal home page's reference fields. URL: Triggers an action based on the defined URL. Define the URL components as shown in this example. Image omitted: url-trigger-type.png URL trigger type format example.</p> Important: If you're using the Virtual Agent web client outside of the ServiceNow instance (for example, as part of a third-party website), use the URL trigger type. Don't use any of the other trigger types. The URL trigger type applies only if no other available trigger types match the URL. If you don’t see the trigger type that you need using the lookup list icon ( Image omitted: look-up-icon.png Lookup using list icon.), you can create your own custom trigger type. For more information about custom trigger types, see <a href="../create-custom-trigger-types/">Create custom trigger types</a>.</p></td></tr><tr><td> Conditions	Conditions that must be met for the trigger type to run as defined by the admin. Conditions vary by trigger type. Specify the Proactive Triggers conditions that you want to use.For more information about using conditions, see Condition builder. Note: Rule conditions are case-sensitive and must match. For example, if you want to use the name of a catalog item, such as the iPhone condition, entering "iphone" doesn't give you the results that you want. Image omitted: specify-conditions.png Proactive Triggers conditions.</p> Note: When specifying the conditions that must be met for a trigger type, be careful not to specify conflicting trigger types and conditions. Conflicting URL trigger types and conditions can cause errors. For more information, see Manage Proactive Triggers.
Advanced conditions	Option for using scripts to define the condition. Image omitted: specify-advanced-conditions.png Specify advanced conditions.
Find available agent	Option to check for any available live agents.

Parent Topic:Proactive Triggers reference