# Build a journey

Choose a trigger, add messages and decisions, test paths and activate your journey.

Build a journey by choosing a trigger and adding messages, waits and decisions. This walkthrough uses a post-purchase follow-up from Juniper Kitchen, a fictional business: thank the customer, wait three days and ask for a review unless they purchase again. For entry rules and statuses, see [Journeys](/docs/guides/journeys/how-journeys-work).

## Start a journey

1. Go to **Journeys** and choose **New journey**.
2. On **Choose where to start**, pick one of:
   - **Blank journey**
   - **Send one email when something happens**: an event and a single email, such as a welcome
   - **Draft with Kiro AI**: describe the journey and review the draft
   - a recipe under **Start from a recipe**: **Welcome series**, **Birthday**, **Win back** or **Post-purchase**

Nothing is saved or turned on until you choose to.

## Set the trigger

Select the trigger at the top of the canvas and set **Starts when**. For this example, choose **An event happens** and pick *Order Completed* as the **Trigger event**. Then set re-entry to **Each time**, so every order starts a new follow-up.

## Add steps

Choose **Add a step**, pick where it goes under **Where**, then choose the type. Steps run from top to bottom. Select a step to edit it in the panel on the right.

| Step | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| **Send message** | Sends an email or push notification. |
| **Wait** | Pauses for a set time, for example 3 days. Turn on **Only during set hours** to continue only within a time window in the contact's time zone. |
| **Wait until** | Waits for the contact to do an event, up to a time limit (1 minute to 90 days). It then follows the **Did it** or **Timed out** path. |
| **Digest** | Collects repeat trigger events for a while (1 minute to 7 days), then continues once with all of them. |
| **Event branch** | Two paths, based on a property of the trigger event: **Matches** or **Does not match**. |
| **Contact filter** | Lets through only contacts who match rules. Under **When to check**, choose **Once at this step**, or **Here and before later steps** to remove anyone who stops matching. |
| **Split** | Sends contacts down different paths by rules, with an **Otherwise** path for everyone else. |
| **Action** | Sets a profile attribute, adds to or removes from a list attribute or a group, or calls a webhook. Then carries on. |

## Set up a send step

1. Choose **Email** or **Push**.
2. For email, choose **Choose template** or **Open email designer**, and set the sender and subject. The journey keeps its own copy of the design, so templates aren't changed. See [Design an email](/docs/guides/email-designer/design-an-email).
3. Optionally, pick a topic.
4. Under **If they can't receive this, go to**, choose what happens to contacts without consent, without a device, or outside the topic: **Skip it and carry on**, or go to another step. For example, send a push and fall back to email.

The sender's domain must be verified before the journey can be turned on. See [Set up a sending domain](/docs/guides/getting-started/set-up-a-sending-domain).

For the example, add **Send message** (thank-you email), then **Wait until** *Order Completed* with a 3-day time limit. On **Timed out**, add a review-request email. On **Did it**, end the journey.

## Add exit rules

Add an **Exit event**, under **Exit rules**, to take people out whenever it happens. You can also add a conversion goal so the journey's report counts orders. See [Journey results](/docs/guides/journeys/journey-results).

## Check your work

The builder's **Review** button counts the problems left to fix, such as an empty email or a missing trigger. You can choose **Save draft** with problems still open, but you can't turn the journey on until they're fixed.

To see a real contact's route, save the journey, open it and go to **Test a contact**:

1. Choose a **Contact**.
2. For event triggers, optionally enter the event's properties.
3. Kirora shows whether they'd enter and each step they'd reach, including any message they couldn't receive and why.

Nothing is sent and nobody is enrolled. Message limits and send times aren't previewed.

## Turn it on

Choose **Save and activate**, or open the saved journey and choose **Activate journey**. Read the confirmation and confirm. From then on, matching contacts enter.

To stop new entries for a while, choose **Pause journey**. To finish it for good, choose **End journey** from its menu. A journey that people have entered can't be deleted, only ended.