# Notification event (/platform/concepts/notification-event)

Learn about the Novu notifications lifecycle and the key entities that make up a notification.

In Novu, notifications are the core building blocks of your product’s communication experience. When your user receives a message via an in-app alert, an email, or a push notification, what they’re seeing is the final output of a notification.

Notifications represent the complete journey of a message triggered by an event in your application and delivered to a specific user across one or more channels. They encapsulate all the execution logic and delivery metadata in a single traceable unit.

## Notification lifecycle

A notification doesn't exist in isolation, it’s the result of a sequence of interconnected entities working together. Here’s how it works in Novu:

<img src="/images/concepts/notifications/notification-life-cycle.png" alt="Notification lifecycle" className="rounded-lg border w-[800px]" />

### Event

Something meaningful happens in your application, such as a user signing up, a password reset being requested, or a comment being posted. You emit this event to Novu using the [Event Trigger API](/api-reference/events/trigger-event).

Each event contains:

* A name that maps to a specific workflow (user\_signed\_up)
* A payload with dynamic data
* One or more subscribers
* Optional overrides or metadata

This is how your application tells Novu, “It’s time to send something.”

### Workflow

Novu matches the incoming event to a predefined workflow. This workflow is your logic for determining:

* What channels to use (email, in-app, SMS, etc.)
* What message templates to render
* When and how messages should be sent

The workflow is where message personalization, conditional logic, and multi-channel orchestration happens.

<Callout title="Want to learn more?" type="info">Refer to the [Workflows documentation](/platform/concepts/workflows).</Callout>

### Notification

Once the workflow starts executing, Novu creates a notification for each subscriber involved. This notification acts as the central entity tracking everything that happens - every job, message, and delivery status. It includes:

* The subscriber details
* The workflow (template) used
* The event payload
* Jobs executed
* Messages generated
* Delivery status updates and errors

Think of it as the container for all activity triggered by a single event for a single user.

<Callout>
  In simpler terms, when a workflow is triggered to a subscriber, it creates an event. One event is one notification.
</Callout>

### Message

Each channel step in the workflow results in one or more messages. These are the actual pieces of content sent to users' emails, push notifications, SMS, and in-app alerts.

Messages are live entities, tracked in real-time, with full visibility into:

* Rendering logic
* Channel used
* Delivery status
* Provider responses or errors

<Callout>Each message has a unique ID and status, learn more about this in the [Messages API](/api-reference/messages/message-schema).</Callout>

## Notification structure

A notification in Novu is more than just a message, it’s a full record of what happened from the moment an event was triggered to when one or more messages were delivered or failed to deliver.

Each notification encapsulates a set of properties that describe its creation, context, execution, and result. These properties are essential for debugging, analytics, and tracking user communications.

### Notification properties

| Property        | Description                                                                                                                                         |
| --------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `transactionId` | A unique identifier for this specific notification execution run. Useful for tracing across APIs and logs.                                          |
| `template`      | The workflow (template) that was executed. Defines the steps and channels used.                                                                     |
| `subscriber`    | The user who received the notification. Includes subscriber ID and metadata.                                                                        |
| `payload`       | Dynamic data passed in from the event, used to render personalized message content.                                                                 |
| `jobs`          | A list of steps (jobs) that were executed as part of the workflow. Each job corresponds to a workflow action, for example, send email or run delay. |
| `messages`      | The individual messages generated for each channel. Contains delivery status, content, and provider response.                                       |
| `status`        | The current execution state of the notification (`pending`, `completed`, `failed`, and so on).                                                      |

These fields are accessible via the [Notifications API](/api-reference/notifications/list-all-events) and are also displayed in the Novu dashboard’s [Activity Feed](https://dashboard.novu.co/activity-feed) for visual traceability.

## Frequently asked questions

These are some of the most frequently asked questions about notifications in Novu.

### What is the difference between a notification and an event?

A notification is the result of an event. An event is the trigger of a workflow to a subscriber that causes a notification to be created.

### What is the difference between a notification and a message?

One notification event can have multiple messages as per the workflow configuration. Messages are the actual "notification message" to the end user.