# Trigger Agents from External Channels > For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.redpanda.com/llms.txt). Component-specific: [agentic-data-plane-full.txt](https://docs.redpanda.com/agentic-data-plane-full.txt) --- title: Trigger Agents from External Channels latest-operator-version: v26.1.5 latest-console-tag: v3.7.4 latest-connect-version: 4.96.1 latest-redpanda-tag: v26.1.10 docname: triggers/overview page-component-name: agentic-data-plane page-version: master page-component-version: master page-component-title: Agentic Data Plane page-relative-src-path: triggers/overview.adoc page-edit-url: https://github.com/redpanda-data/adp-docs/edit/main/modules/connect/pages/triggers/overview.adoc description: Triggers connect a deployed agent to the outside world, so people and systems can invoke it without calling its API directly. page-topic-type: overview personas: agent_builder, platform_engineer learning-objective-1: Describe what an agent trigger is and how a trigger invokes an agent learning-objective-2: Describe how triggers are added, edited, and disconnected on an agent learning-objective-3: Interpret the status that an agent's Triggers tab reports for each trigger page-git-created-date: "2026-06-02" page-git-modified-date: "2026-06-11" --- A trigger is a configured way for the outside world to invoke an agent. Without a trigger, an agent only responds to direct calls against its API. Add a trigger and you connect the agent to a channel: with a Microsoft Teams trigger, people in your organization chat with the agent in a personal Teams chat, and replies stream back as the agent produces them. Each trigger is its own resource on the agent, created, edited, and disconnected on its own, so you can attach several to the same agent. For example, one agent can serve a production Teams bot and a test Teams bot side by side, each through its own trigger. After reading this page, you will be able to: - Describe what an agent trigger is and how a trigger invokes an agent - Describe how triggers are added, edited, and disconnected on an agent - Interpret the status that an agent’s Triggers tab reports for each trigger ## [](#manage-triggers)Manage triggers Triggers live on the agent’s detail page, on the **Triggers** tab: - Click **Add trigger**, pick the trigger type, and fill in its configuration. A Microsoft Teams trigger takes the bot’s application (client) ID, directory (tenant) ID, and a secret store reference to the bot’s client secret. For the full setup, including the Microsoft side, see [Connect an Agent to Microsoft Teams](https://docs.redpanda.com/agentic-data-plane/connect/triggers/microsoft-teams/). - To change a trigger’s configuration, edit it on its card. The trigger’s unique ID, derived from its display name at creation, and the trigger’s type are fixed; the display name, description, and type-specific configuration stay editable. - To remove a trigger, disconnect it on its card. Disconnecting stops the agent from being invoked through that trigger and can’t be undone. A Microsoft Teams trigger also exposes a messaging endpoint: a URL that Teams delivers inbound messages to. Redpanda reports this URL on the trigger’s card shortly after you add the trigger, and you register it with your bot so Teams knows where to send messages. ## [](#trigger-status)Trigger status Adding a trigger does not validate it on the spot. Redpanda’s messaging bridge checks each trigger in the background, about every 30 seconds, by validating its credentials with Microsoft, and reports the result. The **Triggers** tab shows one of three states: - **Pending**: No check has been reported yet. A trigger sits here briefly after you add it. - **Connected**: The latest check passed. For a Microsoft Teams trigger, this means Microsoft accepted the bot credentials. - **Error**: The latest check failed. The message on the card explains the reason, for example, a rejected client secret. Because the check runs continuously, the status also catches problems that appear later: if a bot’s client secret expires, the trigger flips to **Error** without anyone sending a message. The tab refreshes the status on its own, and you can also refresh on demand. ## [](#next-steps)Next steps - [Connect an Agent to Microsoft Teams](https://docs.redpanda.com/agentic-data-plane/connect/triggers/microsoft-teams/) - [Create an Agent](https://docs.redpanda.com/agentic-data-plane/connect/create-agent/) - [How Agents Work](https://docs.redpanda.com/agentic-data-plane/connect/agents-overview/)