Using Segments

Target experiences, experiments, and features with segments

Once defined, segments can be referenced anywhere that needs audience targeting: experience triggers, experiment populations, and feature gates.

Experience triggers

Use a Segment as an Experience trigger to show it only to users who match specific criteria. In the Editor, set the starting point trigger type to Segment and select the Segment you want to target.

When an Experience uses a segment trigger, Nuxie detects the membership change on the server, starts the Journey, and arms any later on-device work for profile delivery. A device may also use a delivered membership fact as a state gate for an already armed Journey.

For example, a “Free Users” segment trigger ensures your upgrade paywall appears only to users who have not yet subscribed. See Triggers & Goals for more on configuring triggers.

Experiment scoping

Combine segments with experiments to run A/B tests on a specific audience. Set a segment trigger on your experience, then add an experiment action inside the experience. Only users who match the segment see the experiment.

This lets you test a paywall redesign on free users without affecting subscribers, or run an onboarding experiment only for new users. See Experiments for details.

Segment dependencies

Segments can reference other segments. When Segment A includes a “is in Segment B” condition, Nuxie tracks this as a dependency. Dependencies affect two things:

• Evaluation order – Nuxie evaluates Segment B before Segment A so that the membership check uses fresh results.
• Publication – Nuxie resolves the dependency graph while compiling and evaluating server Journey work. If later on-device work reads a membership, its signed release declares the opaque fact that the profile must include.

Dependencies can be chained (A depends on B, B depends on C), but circular references are not allowed. The builder and the server both enforce this constraint.

Viewing dependencies

Open a segment’s detail view in the dashboard. The Usage tab shows which experiences reference the segment. The segment detail sidebar shows which other segments depend on this segment (dependents) and which segments it references (dependencies).

If you try to archive a segment that other segments depend on, Nuxie prevents the operation and tells you which segments would be affected.

SDK profile

The profile contains a compiler-pruned facts.memberships table: opaque segment IDs mapped to server-calculated booleans. It does not contain names, rules, dependency graphs, or a general segment catalog.

Membership is Journey runtime input rather than a public SDK query surface. The SDK synchronizes it at launch and foreground; identity changes select that identity’s cached facts without adding a hidden network request.

Viewing members and counts

From the segment detail view in the dashboard:

• Customers tab – Browse users currently in the segment with their entry date.
• Member count – Displayed on the segment list and detail header.

Member counts reflect server-side evaluation results and update as events are processed.

Next steps

• Segment Builder – Create and edit segment conditions.
• Triggers & Goals – Use segments as experience triggers.
• Targeting by Segment – Step-by-step guide to targeting users with segments.