Event Types & Automations Catalog

Complete reference of all 55 event types and their automations

Overview

This catalog documents:

81 Generated Events (from 9 database tables × 9 event types each)
- 27 .requested events (user/AI intent)
- 27 .approved events (permission validated)
- 27 .validated events (operation complete)
1 System Event (webhooks)
Default worker/automation for each event
Data schemas and payloads

Note: Synap uses a 3-phase event pattern for security:

.requested - User or AI expresses intent
.approved - Permission validator authorizes
.validated - Operation completed successfully

How to Read This Catalog

Each event entry shows:

event_type
  Trigger: What causes this event
  Automation: What happens automatically
  Output: What gets created/updated
  Schema: Expected data structure

Note: The catalog focuses on WHAT happens, not implementation details about which worker processes each event.

Generated Events

Entities (9 events)

Purpose: Core knowledge graph nodes (notes, tasks, projects)

entities.create.requested

Trigger: User or AI creates an entity
Automation: Permission Validator Worker
Action: Check ownership and permissions
Output: entities.create.approved (if authorized) or rejected
Schema:

{
  type: string,           // 'note' | 'task' | 'project'
  title?: string,
  content?: string,
  tags?: string[],
  metadata?: Record<string, unknown>
}

entities.create.approved

Trigger: After permission validation passes
Automation: Entities Worker
Action: Validate → upload content to storage → create DB record
Output: entities.create.validated + entity in DB + content file
Note: 3-phase pattern - Permission check happens BEFORE DB operation

entities.create.validated

Trigger: After entity created successfully
Automation: AI Analyzer + Embedding Worker
Action: Generate embeddings + extract metadata + detect insights
Output: Vector in entity_vectors + AI suggestions

entities.update.requested

Trigger: User or AI updates entity
Automation: Permission Validator Worker
Action: Check if user owns entity or has workspace permission
Output: entities.update.approved or rejected
Schema:

{
  entityId: string,
  changes?: Record<string, unknown>,
  content?: string,
  title?: string
}

entities.update.approved

Trigger: After permission validation passes
Automation: Entities Worker
Action: Validate → update DB → upload new content (if changed)
Output: entities.update.validated

entities.update.validated

Trigger: After entity updated
Automation: AI Analyzer (if content changed)
Action: Regenerate embeddings
Output: Updated vectors

entities.delete.requested

Trigger: User deletes entity
Automation: Permission Validator Worker
Action: Check if user owns entity
Output: entities.delete.approved or rejected

entities.delete.approved

Trigger: After permission validation passes
Automation: Entities Worker
Action: Soft delete (set deleted_at)
Output: entities.delete.validated

entities.delete.validated

Trigger: After entity deleted
Automation: None (no post-processing)

Documents (9 events)

Purpose: User-uploaded documents with automatic versioning

documents.create.requested

Trigger: User uploads document
Automation: Documents Worker
Automation: Upload to storage + create DB record + generate preview
Output: documents.create.validated + document metadata
Schema:

{
  title: string,
  type: 'text' | 'markdown' | 'code' | 'pdf' | 'docx',
  content: Buffer | string,
  language?: string,  // for code files
  projectId?: string
}

documents.create.validated

Trigger: After document created
Automation: AI Analyzer
Automation: Generate embeddings for search
Output: Searchable document

documents.update.requested

Trigger: User edits document
Automation: Documents Worker
Automation: Create new version + store delta + update DB
Output: documents.update.validated + new documentVersion record
Schema:

{
  documentId: string,
  content: string,
  delta?: object,  // Operational Transform delta
  message?: string  // Commit message
}

🎯 Default Automation: Automatic Versioning

Every update creates a new version
Stores delta (diff) for efficient storage
Enables time-travel (view any past version)

documents.update.validated

Trigger: After document updated + version created
Automation: AI Analyzer
Automation: Regenerate embeddings (if content changed)

documents.delete.requested

Trigger: User deletes document
Automation: Documents Worker
Automation: Soft delete + preserve all versions
Output: documents.delete.validated

documents.delete.validated

Trigger: After document deleted
Automation: None

Document Versions (9 events)

Purpose: Document revision history

documentVersions.create.requested

Trigger: Automatically when document updated (internal)
Automation: Documents Worker
Automation: Create version snapshot
Output: documentVersions.create.validated

documentVersions.create.validated

Trigger: Version created
Automation: None (read-only history)

(update/delete not used - versions are immutable)

Chat Threads (9 events)

Purpose: Conversation containers

chatThreads.create.requested

Trigger: User starts new conversation
Automation: Chat Worker
Automation: Create thread + assign first message
Output: chatThreads.create.validated
Schema:

{
  title?: string,
  participants?: string[],  // user IDs
  metadata?: Record<string, unknown>
}

chatThreads.create.validated

Trigger: Thread created
Automation: None

chatThreads.update.requested

Trigger: Update thread metadata (title, participants)
Automation: Chat Worker
Automation: Update thread record
Output: chatThreads.update.validated

chatThreads.delete.requested

Trigger: User deletes conversation
Automation: Chat Worker
Automation: Soft delete thread + all messages
Output: chatThreads.delete.validated

Conversation Messages (9 events)

Purpose: Individual chat messages

conversationMessages.create.requested

Trigger: User or AI sends message
Automation: Messages Worker
Automation: Assign to thread + store + trigger AI (if enabled)
Output: conversationMessages.create.validated + message in DB
Schema:

{
  threadId: string,
  content: string,
  role: 'user' | 'assistant' | 'system',
  metadata?: {
    model?: string,
    tokens?: number,
    reasoning?: object
  }
}

🎯 Default Automation: Message Threading

Automatically assigns message to thread
Creates new thread if threadId not provided
Maintains conversation context

conversationMessages.create.validated

Trigger: After message created
Automation: Insight Detector
Automation: Detect action items + entities mentioned
Output: AI suggestions

conversationMessages.update.requested

Trigger: User edits message
Automation: Messages Worker
Automation: Update + create edit history
Output: conversationMessages.update.validated

Webhook Subscriptions (9 events)

Purpose: External integrations configuration

webhookSubscriptions.create.requested

Trigger: User/API creates webhook
Automation: Webhooks Worker
Automation: Validate URL + store subscription + generate secret
Output: webhookSubscriptions.create.validated
Schema:

{
  name: string,
  url: string,
  eventTypes: string[],  // Event types to subscribe to
  secret?: string,        // For HMAC validation
  retryConfig?: {
    maxRetries: number,
    backoff: 'exponential' | 'linear'
  }
}

webhookSubscriptions.update.requested

Trigger: User updates webhook config
Automation: Webhooks Worker
Automation: Update subscription
Output: webhookSubscriptions.update.validated

webhookSubscriptions.delete.requested

Trigger: User unsubscribes webhook
Automation: Webhooks Worker
Automation: Soft delete subscription
Output: webhookSubscriptions.delete.validated

API Keys (9 events)

Purpose: API authentication

apiKeys.create.requested

Trigger: User generates API key
Automation: API Keys Worker
Automation: Generate key + hash + store
Output: apiKeys.create.validated + API key (shown once)
Schema:

{
  name: string,
  scopes: string[],  // Permissions
  expiresAt?: Date
}

apiKeys.update.requested

Trigger: User updates key metadata (name, scopes)
Automation: API Keys Worker
Automation: Update record
Output: apiKeys.update.validated

apiKeys.delete.requested

Trigger: User revokes API key
Automation: API Keys Worker
Automation: Soft delete + invalidate immediately
Output: apiKeys.delete.validated

Tags (9 events)

Purpose: User-defined entity labels

tags.create.requested

Trigger: User creates tag
Automation: Tags Worker
Automation: Create tag + assign color
Output: tags.create.validated
Schema:

{
  name: string,
  color?: string  // Hex color
}

tags.update.requested

Trigger: User renames tag or changes color
Automation: Tags Worker
Automation: Update tag
Output: tags.update.validated

tags.delete.requested

Trigger: User deletes tag
Automation: Tags Worker
Automation: Delete tag + remove from all entities
Output: tags.delete.validated

Agents (9 events)

Purpose: AI agent configurations

agents.create.requested

Trigger: User or system creates AI agent config
Automation: Agents Worker
Automation: Store agent config + capabilities
Output: agents.create.validated
Schema:

{
  name: string,
  type: 'orchestrator' | 'analyzer' | 'extractor' | 'custom',
  model?: string,
  capabilities?: string[],
  permissions?: {
    autoApprove?: boolean,
    allowedActions?: string[]
  }
}

agents.update.requested

Trigger: Update agent config
Automation: Agents Worker
Automation: Update config
Output: agents.update.validated

agents.delete.requested

Trigger: Disable agent
Automation: Agents Worker
Automation: Soft delete agent
Output: agents.delete.validated

System Events

webhooks.deliver.requested

Trigger: Any event (if webhook subscription exists for that event type)
Automation: Webhook Broker
Automation:
1. Find all subscriptions for this event type
2. For each subscription:
  - Build payload
  - Sign with HMAC
  - POST to subscriber URL
  - Retry on failure (3 attempts)
Output: HTTP 200 from subscriber (or failure logged)
Schema:

{
  subscriptionId: string,
  event: SynapEvent,  // The original event
  attempt: number,
  timestamp: Date
}

🎯 Default Automation: Event Delivery

Guaranteed delivery with retries
Exponential backoff: 1s, 4s, 16s
Dead letter queue after 3 failures

Event Catalog Summary

Category	Events	Tables	Notes
3-Phase Events	81	9	requested + approved + validated
System	1	-	webhook delivery
Total	82	9	Production event system

3-Phase Pattern Breakdown:

.requested events: 27 (user/AI intent)
.approved events: 27 (permission validated)
.validated events: 27 (operation complete)

Next Steps

Event sourcing explained - Pattern reference
Development setup - Workers and local automation
Webhooks guide - External integrations
Events API - Event API endpoints

Event Types & Automations Catalog

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