Triggers & activation
Webhooks, schedules, manual runs — and what active actually means.
A workflow is active or inactive. Active means its triggers fire against the pinned snapshot; inactive means nothing runs unless you click run on the canvas.
Webhook
The webhook step gives you a unique URL under /webhooks/… with a
per-webhook bearer token. POST a JSON body to fire the workflow; the
payload becomes the trigger step's output.
While building, put the webhook into listening mode and send a real request from the source system — MadMax captures the payload and uses it as the sample every downstream step verifies against.
Schedule
Cron-style schedules (*/15 * * * *). The schedule fires only while
the workflow is active, and always against the pinned snapshot — edits
after activation don't change what runs until you re-activate.
Manual
No auto-firing trigger at all: the workflow runs when you click
run. Active workflows run their snapshot; add draft: true (or
use the canvas run button on an inactive workflow) to exercise the
live canvas instead.
Activation gates
Activate refuses politely when the graph isn't runnable yet:
- no trigger step (manual-only workflows don't need activation)
- steps with missing required config or connections
- broken references between steps
Fix what it names and activate again. Deactivating stops triggers immediately; the snapshot stays for audit and re-activation is one click.