novu-trigger-notification

name	novu-trigger-notification
description	Trigger Novu notification workflows to send messages across email, SMS, push, chat, and in-app channels. Supports single triggers, bulk triggers, broadcast to all subscribers, topic-based targeting, and cancellation. Use when sending transactional notifications, alerts, or any event-driven messages.
inputs	[{"name":"NOVU_SECRET_KEY","description":"Server-side API key from https://dashboard.novu.co/api-keys. Used by @novu/api.","required":true,"type":"secret"}]

Trigger Notification

Send notifications by triggering Novu workflows. Supports single, bulk, broadcast, and topic-based delivery.

SDK Setup

import { Novu } from "@novu/api";

const novu = new Novu({
  secretKey: process.env.NOVU_SECRET_KEY,
});

Single Trigger

Send a notification to one subscriber:

const result = await novu.trigger({
  workflowId: "welcome-email",
  to: "subscriber-123",
  payload: {
    userName: "Jane",
    activationLink: "https://app.example.com/activate",
  },
});

Trigger with Inline Subscriber Creation

If the subscriber doesn't exist yet, provide the full object — Novu upserts the subscriber:

const result = await novu.trigger({
  workflowId: "welcome-email",
  to: {
    subscriberId: "user-456",
    email: "[e-mail]",
    firstName: "Jane",
    lastName: "Doe",
  },
  payload: { userName: "Jane" },
});

Trigger with Transaction ID

Use custom transactionId for idempotency:

const result = await novu.trigger({
  workflowId: "order-update",
  to: "subscriber-123",
  payload: { orderId: "order-789" },
  transactionId: "unique-tx-id-abc",
});

Bulk Trigger

Send up to 100 events in a single request:

const result = await novu.triggerBulk({
  events: [
    {
      workflowId: "welcome-email",
      to: "subscriber-1",
      payload: { userName: "Alice" },
    },
    {
      workflowId: "welcome-email",
      to: "subscriber-2",
      payload: { userName: "Bob" },
    },
  ],
});

Broadcast

Send to all subscribers in the environment:

const result = await novu.triggerBroadcast({
  // here name field is for workflowId
  name: "system-announcement",
  payload: {
    message: "Scheduled maintenance at 2am UTC",
  },
});

Topic-Based Trigger

Send to all subscribers in a topic:

const result = await novu.trigger({
  workflowId: "project-update",
  to: [{
    type: "Topic",
    topicKey: "project-alpha-watchers",
  }],
  payload: { update: "New release deployed" },
});

Cancel a Trigger

Cancel delayed or digested notifications using the transactionId:

await novu.cancel("unique-tx-id-abc");

Trigger Parameters

Parameter	Required	Description
workflowId	Yes	The workflow identifier (not display name)
to	Yes	Subscriber ID (string), subscriber object, or topic target
payload	No	Data passed to the workflow, validated against payloadSchema
overrides	No	Provider-specific overrides per channel
transactionId	No	Unique ID for idempotency and cancellation
actor	No	Subscriber ID or object representing who triggered the action
context	No	Key-value pairs for multi-tenancy / organizational context

Overrides

Override provider-specific settings per trigger:

const result = await novu.trigger({
  workflowId: "alert",
  to: "subscriber-123",
  payload: { message: "Server down" },
  overrides: {
    "providers": {
      "sendgrid": {
        from: "[e-mail]",
        cc: ["[e-mail]", "[e-mail]"],
        replyTo: "[e-mail]",
      }
    }
  },
});

Common Pitfalls

1. workflowId is the identifier, not the display name — use the identifier you set when defining the workflow, not its human-readable name. Novu creates workflowId automatically if not provided
2. Subscriber upsert — triggering to a non-existent subscriberId or subscriber object string will create the subscriber with that subscriberId.
3. Bulk trigger limit is 100 events — chunk larger batches into groups of 100.
4. transactionId is required for cancellation — you cannot cancel a trigger without it. Either provide custom transactionId or store novu generated transactionId if usecase is to cancel the workflow run (trigger event) later.
5. Payload is validated against the workflow's payloadSchema — if the workflow defines a schema, the trigger will fail if the payload doesn't match.

References

• Installation & Setup
• Single Trigger Examples
• Bulk Trigger Examples
• Topic Trigger Examples
• Best Practices