Goals and events

Every trigger you register is also an event that contacts already inside an automation can react to. You do not register anything else: the same matches, met and context callables serve all of these.

Where	What the event does
Goal step	A contact anywhere before the goal on their own path jumps to it when the event happens to them, skipping what lay between
Wait for an event step	Holds the contact until the event happens or a time limit runs out, whichever is first
Leave when (automation settings)	Ends the contact’s run as left when the event happens
Let others join here (on a goal)	A contact who is not in the automation joins at the goal and gets only the steps after it

met makes a trigger a goal

The builder offers a trigger as a goal only when it has a met callable. A goal is a checkpoint, so it has to be able to answer “has this already happened to them?” An event that cannot — Contact is created, User logs in — is a start, not a checkpoint.

'met' => fn (Contact $contact, array $settings, string $since) => acme_bought_since($contact, $settings['product'] ?? 0, $since),

Argument
$contact	The contact the run is for
$settings	The settings the site owner chose for this goal or wait, in your trigger’s fields
$since	When the run entered the automation, UTC, Y-m-d H:i:s

Return true if the event has happened to this contact since $since. It is asked:

• when a run arrives at a Wait for an event on your event — if true, the contact moves on at once instead of waiting;
• when a run arrives at a goal set to Waits here until they do it — if false, the contact waits there until the event comes.

Any trigger, with or without met, can be chosen for Wait for an event and Leave when. Without met, a wait always waits for the next time the event fires.

Tip

met runs once per contact arriving, on the queue. Answer it with one indexed query — never by loading everything the contact ever did.

matches answers for each listener

When your event fires for a contact, Marker CRM finds the runs that care about it — goals ahead of them, waits they are held at, leave-when events — and asks your matches once per goal, wait or leave-when, with that step’s settings:

'matches' => fn (array $settings, array $args, array $context) => empty($settings['product']) || (int) $settings['product'] === $context['product'],

When no active automation starts on your event and none waits for it, a fire costs nothing: contact and context are not even called.

What moves, and what does not

• Only goals ahead. A goal behind the contact, or on another path, moves nobody.
• Not the run’s own doing. An event caused by an action inside the same run does not count as reaching a goal early — the run’s own Add to a list is not the contact choosing to join.
• Arriving without the event. A contact who reaches an optional goal without having done it carries on, and is not counted as reaching it. If the event happens later while the run is still going, the goal counts then.
• Context travels. A run that moves because of your event — to a goal, or out of a wait — merges the event’s context over its own, your keys winning. Later steps and merge tags read the newer values.
• Many contacts at once. An event on your bulk hook reaches runs too. Where matches cannot tell per contact, among is asked once per distinct setting.

Firing an event without starting anything

There is no separate way to fire an event. do_action('marker_crm/trigger', …), or your trigger’s hook, both start automations that begin with the trigger and reach runs already waiting for it. An automation only starts for contacts when one of its triggers names your event and it is active.

Keep it honest

• Do not fire an event that did not happen to the contact, to push runs along. Goals are what the automation’s report counts as success.
• If your plugin can be deactivated, give the trigger available. While it is unavailable, its event is not heard, and it is left out of the pickers. Goals and waits already saved on it are kept as stored.