---
title: Set the audience for an automation
description: Limit who a trigger enrols by lifecycle stage and by included and excluded groups, and preview the people who match before you publish.
sidebar:
  order: 2
area: flows
feature: automations
appPath: /flows/home
lastVerified: 2026-10-23
version: "2026-10-16"
audience: admin
related:
  - directory/employee-groups/how-audiences-match
  - directory/employee-groups
  - flows/steps
  - flows/automations/choose-a-trigger
intercom:
  - id: "11987525"
    title: Choose the Audience for your Flow (Pyn 2)
    url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/11987525-choose-the-audience-for-your-flow-pyn-2
    note: replaces
  - id: "7856462"
    title: Add Filters to Your Automation
    url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/7856462-add-filters-to-your-automation
    note: "Pyn 1 article, kept for reference"
  - id: "6005739"
    title: Create and save recipient filters
    url: https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/6005739-create-and-save-recipient-filters
    note: "Pyn 1 article, kept for reference"
---

The audience is the filter between the trigger and an enrollment. When the trigger fires for someone, Pyn checks their lifecycle stage and group membership against the audience; only a match is enrolled. Use it to keep contractors out of onboarding, run a flow for one country, or send a recurring message to a single department.

## Before you start

- Groups come from **Directory** > **Employee Groups**: demographic groups for each department, location and other HRIS values, plus filter, static and relationship groups you create. See [Employee groups](https://support.pynhq.com/directory/employee-groups/).
- Steps have their own **Audience** tab that narrows further for that step only. The trigger audience decides who is enrolled at all.

![Audience narrows the trigger to lifecycle stages and groups, with a preview of who matches.](https://support.pynhq.com/media/flows/automations/flows-automations-trigger-audience.png)

## Steps

1. In Pyn, open **Flows** in the left navigation, then **Automations**, and select the automation.

2. Select the trigger card at the top of the canvas, then the **Audience** tab in the drawer.

3. Under **Lifecycle**, pick the stages that are eligible: **Current**, **Joiner**, **On leave**, **Terminated**. The description reads "Only employees in these lifecycle stages will be eligible." A flow that sends before the start date needs **Joiner**.

4. Under **Included**, pick the groups the flow runs for ("This trigger will only run for employees in the included groups."). Leave it empty to include everyone in the chosen stages. When you need more than 500 groups, the picker searches as you type.

5. Under **Excluded**, pick the groups the flow never runs for ("This trigger never runs for employees in the excluded groups."). An exclusion wins over an inclusion.

6. Check **Audience Preview** below the fields. It lists the employees who match the audience today, without regard to whether the trigger would fire for them.

7. Select **Publish**.

> **Note:** Included groups with the same parent combine with OR, and different parents combine with AND. Including **Department: Engineering**, **Country: Australia** and **Country: USA** means `Engineering AND (Australia OR USA)`. Groups without a parent, such as static groups, each count as their own condition. See [How audiences match](https://support.pynhq.com/directory/employee-groups/how-audiences-match/).

## What you should see

After publishing, only employees who match the audience appear under [Enrollments](https://support.pynhq.com/activity/enrollments/) when the trigger fires. A step whose own audience excludes everyone shows the warning "The audience is empty, so this step is never sent." A step scheduled before the start date whose audience lacks **Joiner** shows "Sent before the start date but the joiner isn't in the audience."

## Related

- [How audiences match](https://support.pynhq.com/directory/employee-groups/how-audiences-match/) for the full rule with worked examples.
- [Employee groups](https://support.pynhq.com/directory/employee-groups/) to create and inspect the groups you filter by.
- [Steps and messages](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/steps/) for the per-step audience.
- [Choose a trigger](https://support.pynhq.com/flows/automations/choose-a-trigger/) for what fires in the first place.

## Related Intercom articles

- [Choose the Audience for your Flow (Pyn 2)](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/11987525-choose-the-audience-for-your-flow-pyn-2) — replaces
- [Add Filters to Your Automation](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/7856462-add-filters-to-your-automation) — Pyn 1 article, kept for reference
- [Create and save recipient filters](https://intercom.help/pyn/en/articles/6005739-create-and-save-recipient-filters) — Pyn 1 article, kept for reference