Workflow Triggers

Triggers are used to activate Alfred from a hotkey, another Alfred feature or an external source.

Hotkey

The most commonly used trigger; a combination of keypresses tells Alfred you want to perform an action.

Remote

The Remote Trigger is used to connect your workflow to your Remote so that an action can be triggered from Alfred Remote for iOS.

Snippet

Snippet Triggers can be used to perform an action without showing Alfred, simply by typing a pre-set text keyword.

External

This trigger makes it possible for Alfred to be triggered by another application or script using AppleScript.

File Action

The File Action allows you to add a custom action to Alfred's File Actions list, like uploading a file to a folder in Dropbox.

Universal Action

Universal Actions allow you to perform custom actions on files, URLs and text, using the Universal Actions feature.

Contact Action

This trigger adds a custom action which will be performed on a particular field in the Contacts Viewer, such as using a dialer app when you select a phone number.

Fallback Search

The Fallback Search object allows you to replace the default fallback search options when Alfred can't find results to your Mac with your own actions.

Find out more about Workflows

Discover workflows and learn how to create your own in the Workflows section.

To find out more about other workflow objects, take a look at each type:

• Inputs: Keyword-based objects used to perform an action, on its own or followed by a query.
• Actions: The objects that do most of the work in your workflows; opening or revealing files and web searches, running scripts and performing commands.
• Automations: New to Alfred 5, these building blocks let you automate tasks without having to write any code.
• User Interface: Present results in Alfred in convenient new ways, such as a grid of images and files, an editable and interactive text view and more.
• Utilities: Utilities give you control over how your objects are connected together and how the arguments output by the previous object is passed on to the next object.
• Outputs: Collect the information from the earlier objects in your workflow to pop up a Notification Centre message, show output in Large Type, copy to clipboard or run a script containing the result of your workflow.