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Define interventions

Interventions are automated triggers that enable real-time actions based on user behavior.

There are three methods for defining interventions in Signals:

To create an intervention using the UI, go to Signals > Interventions in Snowplow Console and follow the instructions.

The first step is to specify:

  • A unique name
  • An optional description
  • The email address of the primary owner or maintainer

Create intervention form with name, description, and owner fields

Next, configure when the intervention should trigger.

Criteria

Criteria are the conditional rules that determine when an intervention should trigger.

Sent once

An intervention is sent only the first time the criteria are met. Read an example of how this works on the Concepts page.

Defining intervention criteria has three steps:

  1. Select which attribute from a published attribute group to evaluate
  2. Choose which logical operator to use
  3. Enter the value to trigger on

Intervention criteria configuration showing attribute selection, operator, and value fields

When adding more than one criteria, you can require all or any of them to be met.

Multiple intervention criteria with "all" or "any" logic selection

These attributes are both from groups with the domain_userid attribute key. Therefore, this intervention is targeted to users. When a subscribed user reaches 10 page views while using Chrome, the intervention will trigger.

Custom targets

Define a custom intervention target scope by selecting attribute keys. These are the attribute keys that will receive the information.

By default, the intervention will target the attribute keys of the attribute groups defined in the criteria. Specify attribute keys here if you want different targets.

Intervention target configuration showing custom attribute key selection

Publishing the intervention

Once you're happy with your intervention configuration, click Create intervention to save it. It will be saved as a draft, and not yet available to Signals.

Draft intervention page showing Edit and Publish buttons

Click the Edit button if you want to make changes to the intervention.

To send the intervention configuration to your Signals infrastructure, click the Publish button. This will allow Signals to start monitoring attribute value changes.

Published intervention page with sample subscription code

The intervention page also includes sample code to help you subscribe to it. Read more about this in the receiving interventions page.

Versioning

Interventions are versioned. This allows you to iterate on the definitions without breaking downstream processes. All interventions start as v1. If you make changes to the definition, the version will be automatically incremented.

Within criteria, the attributes are always evaluated based on the latest published version of the attribute group that contains the attribute. For example, if attribute_group v1, v2, and v3 all have the required attribute, v3 will be used. If you then publish attribute_group v4, which removes attribute, v3 will still be used.

Deleting an intervention

To unpublish or delete an intervention, click the button on the details page.

Intervention management menu showing Edit, Unpublish, and Delete options

Unpublishing is version specific. You can republish it later if needed. Choose Delete to permanently delete all versions of the intervention.

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