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Sources

Automate workflows with hooks – Claude Code Docs

Introducing Triggers – Dust

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🦥 Sloth's Simple Definition

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An automation is an agent that runs without you asking. It fires on a schedule or when something happens. This is what turns a one-time tool into an always-on system: run a research task once = a report; schedule it weekly = ongoing intelligence.

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The 3 Kinds of Triggers

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• Manual: you press a button or type a command.
• Scheduled: runs on a clock (every morning at 8am, every Monday). Classic cron-job energy. ⏰
• Event-based: fires when something happens (new email, PR opened, file changed, message received). </aside>

Hooks: Automations Inside a Coding Agent

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In coding agents like Claude Code, hooks run your own code at key moments in the agent's lifecycle:

• Auto-format files after every edit
• Run tests after changes
• Block dangerous commands before they execute
• Inject context at the start of a session
• Ping you when the agent needs input

Hooks make behavior deterministic where you need it, no praying the prompt works.

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"Agents That Run While You Sleep"

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The 2026 move is cloud-hosted scheduled agents (Claude Code routines, Trigger.dev, Dust triggers, etc.). A trigger fires → a fresh agent spins up in the cloud → does the job → shuts down. Your laptop doesn't even need to be on.

The full loop: event happens (or schedule hits) → agent runs with context → agent writes back the result.

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🦥 Agent vs Plain Old Cron Job

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A cron job runs the exact same script every time. An automated agent can reason, adapt, and handle messy real-world input on each run, then decide what to do next. Same trigger, way smarter middle. 🦥

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