Start Event

A start event is a circle with a thin single-line border. It is where every process instance begins, the first node a token occupies. A process without a start event has no way to create instances. It is a specification with no invocation point.

The marker inside the start circle tells you what triggers new instances. Empty (no marker) is a plain start, invoked manually or by API. A clock marker is a timer start, instances are created on a schedule. An envelope is a message start, an incoming message creates an instance. A triangle is a signal start, a pentagon is a conditional start. Multiple start events on the same process mean multiple ways to invoke it, each fit for a different trigger.

• The process can be invoked manually *or* automatically on a schedule: plain start + timer start.
• The process reacts to an incoming message *and* to a specific signal: message start + signal start, typically with converging paths.
• Different trigger sources produce subtly different starting states: separate start events let each initialise its branch cleanly instead of piling conditional logic on one.

LucidFlow analyses the trigger language in source documents to classify start events. Explicit schedules ("every Monday morning") become timer starts; incoming-message phrases ("when the customer submits the form") become message starts; broadcasts ("when the company-wide launch happens") become signal starts. The cost dashboard uses start-event frequency as the anchor for all per-month calculations, so the value you set there propagates to the whole diagram.