Webhooks (Developer Setup)

This article covers the developer setup path for webhook-triggered automations. For the UI-based setup path, see Webhooks (UI Setup).

How webhook-triggered automations work

A webhook-triggered automation listens for events from an external service. When the service sends a matching event, Obvious receives it and starts the connected automation. Each run gets its own thread with the event data included.

Create a webhook subscription

1. Open a thread in your Obvious project, inside the automation you want the webhook to trigger, or as part of setting up a new automation.
2. Ask the agent to create a webhook subscription for the external service and event type you want to listen for. For example: Create a webhook subscription for Stripe that listens for payment created events.
3. Copy the webhook URL the agent returns.

If the external service is already connected to Obvious, the agent may handle registration automatically. In that case, you may not need to copy and paste a URL.

Add the URL to your external service

1. Open the external service's webhook or developer settings.
2. Add a new webhook endpoint.
3. Paste the webhook URL from Obvious.
4. Select the events you want the service to send.
5. Save your changes.

The exact settings page lives outside Obvious, so the labels may differ by service.

Connect the webhook subscription to an automation

A webhook subscription on its own only listens for events. To make it run work in Obvious, connect it to an automation. To connect the subscription, tell the agent which automation to use when creating the subscription.

For example: Create a webhook for Pylon support tickets and connect it to my "Triage New Tickets" automation.

Every matching event runs the connected automation with the event data included.

What happens when an event arrives

When the external service sends a matching event, Obvious receives it and starts the associated automation. Each automation run gets its own thread, so you can see what the agent did, review the results, and use the thread history as the run record.

Find and review the run

After the external service sends an event, check the automation's run history. Running automations can also appear in the activity panel with live progress.

Open the run to review what happened. If the automation includes an approval gate, the run may pause until someone approves or rejects it.

Troubleshooting

The subscription is not triggering. Check that the webhook endpoint is saved in the external service and that the service is sending the event type you selected. If the subscription is paused, events sent during the pause are ignored.

The run is not appearing. Confirm that the webhook subscription is connected to the automation. A subscription that is not connected to an automation only listens for events; it does not run anything.

The automation starts but pauses. The automation may be waiting on an approval gate. Open the run from your run history to approve or reject it.

You need to stop the webhook temporarily. Ask the agent to pause the subscription. To remove it entirely, ask the agent to delete the webhook subscription. Deleting a subscription disconnects it from linked automations, but does not delete the automations themselves.

Still stuck? Email help@obvious.ai.