Holiday Trigger - help

Infos:

  • Used Zammad version: 7.0.1-1776265154.aa2a8181.jammy
  • Used Zammad installation type: package
  • Operating system: Ubuntu Jammy
  • Browser + version: Firefox

Can anyone help me understand why this trigger is not working as I’d expect it to?

Requirement: All emails that are coming in between now and Friday evening should be replied to with the same message (holiday message).

My trigger (selective):

  • Match all (AND)
    • Type is email
    • Sender is Customer
    • Updated at - after (absolute) - 29.04.2026 17:00 (that was 7 hours ago from now)
    • Updated at - before (absolute) - 01.05.2026 17:00 (that’s tomorrow evening)
    • Match any (OR)
      • Action is created
      • Action is updated

I sent 10 test emails from my private email address (set as customer), none of them would trigger a reply. I tried removing the second updated at condition, no change. I tried switching from selective to always, no change. I tried entirely removing the OR clause with the two actions, no change.

Triggers generally work, though.

What am I missing?

Hi vic,

Triggers operate on ticket updates and the updated_at timestamp, not the timestamp of the incoming email. When you set absolute dates in the future they must encompass the actual updated_at of the ticket (which is stored in UTC on the server). If your server is running in UTC and you specify 29.04.2026 17:00 using your local timezone, the actual comparison may not match, so the rule never fires. Also, the Action is created/updated part is redundant; an incoming email will always be article created, so you don’t need to OR against update events.

A couple of things to try:

  • Temporarily remove the date conditions and see if the trigger fires – that will confirm the rest of the logic works.
  • Place your holiday trigger above other triggers, and make sure no earlier trigger has the “stop processing triggers” flag set.
  • If you need an out‑of‑office reply for a fixed period, it’s often easier to activate it manually or use a scheduler instead of absolute date conditions. You can enable the trigger when you go on holiday and disable it when you return.

Hope that helps!