Manual Trigger

Type key: manual_trigger_node
Group: Triggers
Category: trigger
Tier: CORE

The Manual Trigger node starts a workflow execution on demand from the Filament UI. It is the simplest trigger type and is most useful during workflow development, testing, or for operations that should run only when explicitly requested by a user.

Handles

Handle	Direction	Description
(none)	Input	Trigger nodes have no input
output	Output	Passes the configured payload to the first downstream node

Configuration

Field	Type	Default	Description
label	string	Manual Trigger	Display label on the canvas
description	string	""	Optional description
test_payload	JSON string	{}	Payload injected as input when running manually

Behavior

1. The user navigates to Voodflow → Workflows and clicks Run on the workflow
2. The execution is dispatched (sync or async depending on VOODFLOW_EXECUTE_SYNC)
3. The configured test_payload is passed as $context->input to the first downstream node

Output

When the workflow runs, the test_payload JSON is parsed and its fields are spread at the root level of the output. A _meta object is appended automatically with execution metadata.

For example, if your test_payload is:

{ "tier": "free", "id": 2 }

The downstream node receives:

{
    "tier": "free",
    "id": 2,
    "_meta": {
        "node_id": "manual_trigger_node-abc123",
        "timestamp": "2026-03-31T10:00:00+00:00",
        "triggered_by": "manual_trigger"
    }
}

If test_payload is empty ({}), only _meta is present.

Field discovery

Downstream nodes (Switch, If, Transform, etc.) automatically discover the fields defined in your test_payload. This means you can configure field selectors and dot-notation paths in downstream nodes based on the payload structure — without running the workflow first.

Example Use Cases

• Development and testing — run a workflow with known test data without waiting for a schedule or event
• Admin operations — trigger a one-off data migration or report generation on demand
• Debugging — reproduce a specific scenario by injecting a crafted payload

Example workflows

Switch routing with dot notation

💾 Try this example

Download the workflow JSON — open an empty workflow and import the file.

Manual Trigger with ForEach iteration

💾 Try this example

Download the workflow JSON — open an empty workflow and import the file.

Notes

• Manual trigger workflows can be run any number of times regardless of their status (draft or active)
• Configure test_payload directly on the node to inject specific test data into the execution
• Combined with the Data Viewer node, the Manual Trigger is the recommended approach for iterative workflow development