docs/book/src/sop/fan-in/manual.md
A manual trigger starts a run from inside an agent turn, not from an external event. The agent calls the sop_execute tool, naming the SOP to run. There is no listener and no event source to configure; the run begins when the agent decides to start it.
Use a manual trigger when the decision to run belongs to the agent's reasoning rather than to an external signal. This is the path the worked example uses: a release arrives over a channel, the agent reasons about it, and then fires the SOP itself.
A SOP with a manual trigger has no match fields. See Syntax for the trigger block. Validate and inspect it the same way as any other SOP:
zeroclaw sop validate
zeroclaw sop list
zeroclaw sop show <name>
Runs that hit a checkpoint pause as WaitingApproval. Clear or inspect them with the CLI (zeroclaw sop list, zeroclaw sop approve) or out-of-band over the gateway API approval endpoints (GET /admin/sop/pending, POST /admin/sop/approve, POST /admin/sop/deny).
sop_execute