Create trigger

Skill harness/harness-skills/skills/create-trigger

A collection of structured AI agent skills that enable Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, and other AI coding assistants to create, operate, debug, and govern Harness CI/CD workflows through natural language.

Install

npx -y skills add harness/harness-skills --skill create-trigger

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What its author says it does

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Generate Harness Trigger YAML for automated pipeline execution and create via MCP. Use when user says "create trigger", "webhook trigger", "cron trigger", "scheduled build", "artifact trigger", or wants pipelines to run automatically.

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SKILL.md

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Create Trigger

Generate Harness Trigger YAML and push to Harness via MCP.

Instructions

Identify trigger type - Webhook (Git events), Scheduled (cron), Artifact (registry updates), or Manifest (Helm chart updates)
Configure conditions - Branch filters, payload conditions, cron expression, or artifact path
Generate YAML using the templates below, referencing the target pipeline
Create via MCP using harness_create with resource_type trigger
Verify webhook registration - For webhook triggers, confirm the webhook is registered in the Git provider

Trigger Types

Webhook - GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Azure Repos, Custom
Scheduled - Cron-based scheduling
Artifact - Docker Hub, ECR, GCR, ACR, Nexus
Manifest - Helm chart updates

Webhook Trigger (GitHub)

trigger:
  name: PR Trigger
  identifier: pr_trigger
  orgIdentifier: default
  projectIdentifier: my_project
  pipelineIdentifier: ci_pipeline
  source:
    type: Webhook
    spec:
      type: Github
      spec:
        type: PullRequest
        spec:
          connectorRef: github_connector
          autoAbortPreviousExecutions: true
          payloadConditions:
            - key: targetBranch
              operator: Equals
              value: main
          headerConditions: []
          jexlCondition: ""
          actions:
            - Open
            - Reopen
            - Synchronize
  inputYaml: |
    pipeline:
      identifier: ci_pipeline
      properties:
        ci:
          codebase:
            build:
              type: PR
              spec:
                number: <+trigger.prNumber>

GitHub Event Types

Push - Code pushed to branch
PullRequest - PR events (Open, Close, Reopen, Synchronize, Edit)
IssueComment - PR comments (Create, Edit, Delete)
Release - Release events (Create, Publish, Edit)

Webhook Trigger (GitLab)

trigger:
  name: GitLab Push
  identifier: gitlab_push
  pipelineIdentifier: ci_pipeline
  source:
    type: Webhook
    spec:
      type: Gitlab
      spec:
        type: Push
        spec:
          connectorRef: gitlab_connector
          payloadConditions:
            - key: ref
              operator: Contains
              value: main

Scheduled (Cron) Trigger

trigger:
  name: Nightly Build
  identifier: nightly_build
  orgIdentifier: default
  projectIdentifier: my_project
  pipelineIdentifier: ci_pipeline
  source:
    type: Scheduled
    spec:
      type: Cron
      spec:
        expression: "0 2 * * *"    # 2 AM daily
  inputYaml: |
    pipeline:
      identifier: ci_pipeline
      properties:
        ci:
          codebase:
            build:
              type: branch
              spec:
                branch: main

Cron format: <minute> <hour> <day-of-month> <month> <day-of-week>

Artifact Trigger (Docker Registry)

trigger:
  name: New Image Trigger
  identifier: new_image
  pipelineIdentifier: deploy_pipeline
  source:
    type: Artifact
    spec:
      type: DockerRegistry
      spec:
        connectorRef: dockerhub
        imagePath: myorg/myimage
        tag: <+trigger.artifact.build>
  inputYaml: |
    pipeline:
      identifier: deploy_pipeline
      stages:
        - stage:
            identifier: deploy
            spec:
              service:
                serviceRef: my_service

Artifact Source Types

DockerRegistry - Docker Hub
Ecr - AWS ECR
Gcr - Google Container Registry
Acr - Azure Container Registry
Nexus3Registry - Nexus
AmazonS3 - S3 artifacts

Creating via MCP

Call MCP tool: harness_create
Parameters:
  resource_type: "trigger"
  org_id: "<organization>"
  project_id: "<project>"
  body: <trigger YAML>

To list existing triggers:

Call MCP tool: harness_list
Parameters:
  resource_type: "trigger"
  org_id: "<organization>"
  project_id: "<project>"

Payload Conditions

Filter triggers by webhook payload:

payloadConditions:
  - key: targetBranch
    operator: Equals        # Equals, NotEquals, In, NotIn, StartsWith, EndsWith, Contains, Regex
    value: main
  - key: sourceBranch
    operator: StartsWith
    value: feature/

Common keys: sourceBranch, targetBranch, ref, action, tag

Examples

"Create a GitHub PR trigger for CI" - Webhook trigger with PullRequest type
"Set up nightly builds at 2 AM" - Scheduled trigger with cron
"Trigger deploy when new Docker image is pushed" - Artifact trigger with DockerRegistry
"Create a release trigger for tags" - Webhook with Push type, tag filter

Performance Notes

Verify payload conditions match actual webhook payloads from the Git provider.
For cron triggers, double-check the expression — cron uses UTC timezone.
Confirm the target pipeline identifier and inputYaml match the pipeline's expected inputs.

Troubleshooting

Trigger Not Firing

Verify webhook is registered in Git provider
Check payload conditions match actual payload
Ensure connector has correct permissions
Test with harness_get on the trigger to verify config

Duplicate Executions

Enable autoAbortPreviousExecutions for PR triggers
Check for overlapping trigger conditions

Cron Not Running

Verify cron expression syntax (5 fields, UTC timezone)
Check pipeline identifier is correct
Ensure trigger is enabled