diff --git a/plugins/app-json/Makefile b/plugins/app-json/Makefile
index d59ac111a..229186118 100644
--- a/plugins/app-json/Makefile
+++ b/plugins/app-json/Makefile
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 SUBCOMMANDS = subcommands/report subcommands/set
-TRIGGERS = triggers/app-json-process-deploy-parallelism triggers/app-json-get-content triggers/core-post-deploy triggers/core-post-extract triggers/install triggers/post-app-clone-setup triggers/post-app-rename triggers/post-app-rename-setup triggers/post-create triggers/post-delete triggers/post-deploy triggers/post-release-builder triggers/report
+TRIGGERS = triggers/app-json-process-deploy-parallelism triggers/app-json-get-content triggers/core-post-deploy triggers/core-post-extract triggers/install triggers/post-app-clone-setup triggers/post-app-rename triggers/post-app-rename-setup triggers/post-create triggers/post-delete triggers/post-deploy triggers/post-release-builder triggers/pre-release-builder triggers/report
 BUILD = commands subcommands triggers
 PLUGIN_NAME = app-json
 
diff --git a/plugins/app-json/src/triggers/triggers.go b/plugins/app-json/src/triggers/triggers.go
index 828bcc5e6..862982ac5 100644
--- a/plugins/app-json/src/triggers/triggers.go
+++ b/plugins/app-json/src/triggers/triggers.go
@@ -61,6 +61,11 @@ func main() {
 		appName := flag.Arg(1)
 		image := flag.Arg(2)
 		err = appjson.TriggerPostReleaseBuilder(builderType, appName, image)
+	case "pre-release-builder":
+		builderType := flag.Arg(0)
+		appName := flag.Arg(1)
+		image := flag.Arg(2)
+		err = appjson.TriggerPreReleaseBuilder(builderType, appName, image)
 	case "report":
 		appName := flag.Arg(0)
 		err = appjson.ReportSingleApp(appName, "", "")
diff --git a/plugins/app-json/triggers.go b/plugins/app-json/triggers.go
index 82cd95dce..0eedd16a0 100644
--- a/plugins/app-json/triggers.go
+++ b/plugins/app-json/triggers.go
@@ -212,14 +212,16 @@ func TriggerPostDeploy(appName string, imageTag string) error {
 	return executeScript(appName, image, imageTag, "postdeploy")
 }
 
+func TriggerPreReleaseBuilder(builderType string, appName string, image string) error {
+	parts := strings.Split(image, ":")
+	imageTag := parts[len(parts)-1]
+	return executeScript(appName, image, imageTag, "predeploy")
+}
+
 // TriggerPostReleaseBuilder is a trigger to execute predeploy and release deployment tasks
 func TriggerPostReleaseBuilder(builderType string, appName string, image string) error {
 	parts := strings.Split(image, ":")
 	imageTag := parts[len(parts)-1]
-	if err := executeScript(appName, image, imageTag, "predeploy"); err != nil {
-		return err
-	}
-
 	if err := executeScript(appName, image, imageTag, "release"); err != nil {
 		return err
 	}