🔔Webhooks

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Also known as: HTTP Callback, Event Hook

A user-defined HTTP callback that sends an automated message to a URL when a specific event occurs.

DESCRIPTION

Webhooks enable event-driven integrations by pushing notifications to subscribed endpoints. They avoid inefficient polling and provide near real-time updates. Common uses include payment events, repository changes, and alerting. Implementations require signed requests, retry policies, idempotency, and rate controls. Monitoring, dead-letter queues, and schema contracts improve reliability. Webhooks complement pub/sub and message queues in distributed architectures. Secure exposure and verification prevent spoofing.

ALTERNATIVE DEFINITIONS

Wikipedia

A webhook is a user-defined HTTP callback that is triggered by specific events.

Concise definition focusing on HTTP callbacks and events.

Source

GitHub Docs

Webhooks allow you to receive notifications when certain events happen in GitHub.

Emphasizes practical notifications for repository events.

Source

Stripe

Stripe uses webhooks to notify your application about events that happen in your account.

Payment-focused example highlighting account event delivery.

Source

RELATED TERMS

Event-Driven Architecture API Google Cloud Pub-Sub Callback Serverless Functions Event Subscription WebSocket Integration

COMPETING TERMS

Polling Queue

KNOWLEDGE AREAS

Data Integration & Interoperability Software Engineering Real-time & Streaming Data

TARGET AUDIENCE

Software Developer Data Engineer DevOps Engineer

EXTERNAL SOURCES

• Wikipedia - Webhook
• GitHub Docs - GitHub webhook overview
• Stripe - Stripe webhook implementation guide
• Slack - Slack incoming webhooks

TOP QUESTIONS

What is a Webhook?

A webhook is an HTTP callback that sends event data to your endpoint when a specific event occurs, enabling push-based integrations.

Category: Definition

Why use Webhooks instead of polling?

Webhooks reduce latency and resource usage by pushing events only when they happen, avoiding frequent polling requests.

Category: Relevancy

How do you secure Webhooks?

Use signatures, secrets, TLS, IP allowlists, and replay protection. Validate payloads and enforce idempotency to prevent duplicate processing.

Category: Requirements

What are common mistakes with Webhooks?

Ignoring retries and idempotency, failing to validate signatures, and not handling schema evolution or rate limits can break integrations.

Category: Mistakes

How do Webhooks compare to message queues?

Webhooks push events directly over HTTP, while queues decouple producers and consumers with at-least-once delivery and buffering. They often complement each other.

Category: Alternatives

How should Webhook failures be handled?

Implement retries with backoff, dead-letter storage, observability, and alerting. Consider circuit breakers and quarantine for malformed payloads.

Category: Management

What is a hot topic around Webhooks?

Event signatures, standard webhook schemas, and hosted webhook relays improve security and reliability across heterogeneous APIs.

Category: Topic

How to design Webhook payloads?

Include event type, version, IDs, timestamps, and minimal necessary data. Provide URLs for fetching details to limit payload size.

Category: BestPractice

Where to start learning Webhooks?

Study vendor docs like GitHub, Stripe, and Slack. Implement a simple endpoint handling signatures, retries, and idempotency to practice.

Category: GettingStarted