ActionCircleCIUpdated September 2026

How do I trigger a CircleCI pipeline?

Short answer: You can trigger pipeline in CircleCI by hand from its own interface, but it won’t repeat itself. On TinyCommand, add the CircleCI Trigger Pipeline action to a workflow, map its 4 inputs from any upstream app, and it runs automatically every time the trigger fires. No code, and a free tier to start.

Trigger Pipeline in CircleCI — start free All 4 CircleCI actions

Trigger Pipeline in CircleCI — start free

Inputs

The fields this action accepts.

Every field can be mapped from an upstream trigger, AI step, table row, or hard-coded literal.

Field	Type	Required	Description
Project Slug project_slug	string	Required	Format: gh/org/repo or bb/org/repo
Branch branch	string	Optional	Branch to run the pipeline on
Tag tag	string	Optional	Git tag to run the pipeline on (alternative to branch)
Pipeline Parameters (JSON) parameters	string	Optional	Custom parameters defined in your .circleci/config.yml

Sample request

{
  "project_slug": "e.g. gh/acme-corp/my-project",
  "branch": "e.g. main",
  "tag": "e.g. v1.2.3",
  "parameters": "{\"deploy_env\": \"staging\"}"
}

Returns

{
  "id": "abc-123-def",
  "state": "created",
  "number": 42,
  "created_at": "2025-01-15T12:00:00.000Z"
}

Use these fields in downstream nodes for routing, logging, or error handling.

Triggered by

Apps that pair well as the trigger for Trigger Pipeline.

Any of these apps can fire this action as part of a workflow.

Google Sheets → CircleCI

2 Google Sheets triggers

HubSpot → CircleCI

18 HubSpot triggers

FAQ

Questions about Trigger Pipeline.

What does the Trigger Pipeline action do in CircleCI?

Starts a CI run with optional branch and parameter overrides. Useful for "Linear issue moved to deploy → trigger production pipeline" or "rollback requested → trigger pipeline with deploy_version=X parameter" patterns.

What inputs does Trigger Pipeline require?

Required: Project Slug. Every input accepts a static value or a variable from any upstream node in your workflow.

Can I use dynamic inputs from earlier workflow nodes?

Yes. Any field on this action can pull values from upstream nodes, whether that's a form response, a trigger payload, an AI output, or a lookup result.

What happens if CircleCI returns an error?

The run history shows the failed step with its input and the error message CircleCI returned, so you can fix the input and run the workflow again. Automatic retries are built into HTTP steps only, where you can also set your own retry count and delay.

Does Trigger Pipeline support batch operations?

Run Trigger Pipeline inside a loop to process each item in an array. TinyCommand does not throttle calls for you, so for large arrays add a Delay step if you need to stay within CircleCI's rate limits.

More actions

Other CircleCI actions.

Action

Cancel Workflow

Stops an in-flight workflow. Useful for "downstream check failed, short-circuit the rest of the pipeline" cascading workflows or for emergency stop on accidental production deploys.

Action

Get Pipeline

Returns a pipeline by ID with its workflows, jobs, and current state. The standard lookup for workflows that triggered a pipeline and need to poll for completion before proceeding.

Action

List Pipelines

Returns paginated pipelines for a project with state and branch filters. Useful for "what shipped this week" reports and for CI-health monitoring workflows.

Trigger Pipeline in CircleCI — start free