An alternative / complementary approach to notifications: triggers (or actions?) A type may support various actions by creating files in its subdirectory "actions". Other types can trigger an action of a different type or object by calling them (indirectly?): if grep "__file/etc/nginx/conf.d/.*:copy" "$__notifications"; then # Call action from a type cdist trigger __nginx/reload fi Not sure whether this approach (calling "actions" of other types) is sane, as nginx should probably better know if it should be restarted "itself". -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alternate approach: __nginx_vhost www.some-domain.ch --custom << eof some custom code for __nginx_vhost inclusion eof __nginx_vhost: manifest: # __nginx_vhost requires __nginx: creates directories require"$__object_name" __nginx --require-only # Do WE or __file ... depend on nginx? cdist require __nginx # Create file that contains the giving code __file /etc/nginx/conf.d/www.some-domain.ch require="__nginx" __file /etc/nginx/conf.d/www.some-domain.ch __nginx: manifest: __package nginx --state present __file some-custom-files gencode-remote: if first_install or file changed: