Understanding Triggers vs Variables in Oracle AI Agent Workflows

We are currently designing a custom Oracle AI Agent workflow in AI Agent Studio to manage employee address data in Oracle HCM Cloud. My workflow involves retrieving address history, updating existing addresses, and creating new addresses while strictly following compliance and data privacy rules.

I am trying to clarify the distinction between triggers and variables in workflow-type agents:

The variables are straightforward, and we understand how to use them. Triggers, on the other hand, seem to represent events that can initiate the execution of an AI Agent. However, I haven’t been able to find any documentation explaining them. Based on the setup and config possibilities, the trigger tab looks very similar to the variables tab. In other words, are triggers essentially the same as variables, or is there a difference between them?