Triggered Automations That Don't Duplicate
Give the trigger a unique key and a lookup before it writes, so a record that fires twice never becomes two rows.
What it is for
A safety checklist for triggered automations in Bardeen that assumes the trigger will run twice on the same record and makes that harmless. Use it before you attach a trigger to anything that writes into a sheet, a database or a CRM. It stops the two classic overnight disasters: hundreds of duplicate rows, and an automation that writes into the source it is watching and loops until the account's usage is gone.
The skill
Assume the trigger will run more often than you expect, and sometimes twice on the same record. Design for that before you turn it on. Set it up: - Write down the one field that makes a record unique: profile URL, order id, email. If you cannot name one, you are not ready to automate this. - Build and test the whole chain as a manual run first, with the trigger not yet attached. A broken step is cheap to find on one record and expensive to find on four hundred. - Point the first test at a scratch sheet or scratch database, never the live one. Make it safe to run twice: - Look up the unique key in the destination before you write. Update when it exists; create only when it does not. - Where the destination cannot look up, read the existing keys into a list first and skip anything already there. - Never let the automation write into the same source its trigger watches. That is a loop, and it runs all night. Before you walk away: - Run it once and confirm exactly one new row appeared. - Wait for one real trigger cycle and check again. Two rows for one record means the dedupe is not working. Fix it now, not after the weekend. - Add a step that notifies you on every run for the first day, then remove it. A runaway you can see on day one costs nothing. The failure this prevents: Monday morning, the same twelve leads repeated thirty times, and a night of billable runs you cannot get back.
How to install it
1. Open the tool and start a new conversation, project or template. 2. Paste the text below wherever the tool keeps standing instructions — usually called system prompt, instructions, or persona. 3. Save it so it applies to every run rather than a single message.