Hygraph webhooks are a fundamental method for observing changes that happen to content within your project.

Whether new content is published, or existing is updated, subscribe to these events, and get notified via a POST, DELETE, PUT, or GET request to perform your own custom business logic.

For example, you could use webhooks for:

• Syncing data to external search engine,
• Syncing data with external PIM,
• Redeploying your static website when content or assets change,
• Triggering email campaigns based on new content added.
• Push messages into Slack.

#Triggers

Triggers can be configured to listen to one or more content model, stage, and action events. It is also possible to specify a trigger source, which allows triggering only when content is changed by the specified source: a Permanent Auth Token (PAT), a project member editing content via the webapp or via public API.

#Receiving a webhook

Once an event occurs, data is sent as JSON in a POST, DELETE, PUT, or GET request body to the configured URL. The contents of the request always contain the operation, and data of the event.

The data object will always contain the __typename, id and stage keys.

If the webhook is configured to include entry payloads, the following keys will also be included inside the data object:

• All other non-localized fields on the entry.
• The id and __typename of any related entries.
• An optional localizations array, containing any localized fields on the entry.

The snapshot of the current stage is only sent in the webhook body. This means that:

• Create, Update, and Delete actions only send the draft version.
• Publishing and Unpublishing actions only send the published version.

#Securing webhooks

It is best to protect the endpoints which your webhooks invoke. This prevents unauthorized actions on your server, and better protects your users from any suspicious activity.

You should set a shared secret key on your webhook, which can be used to validate the request came from Hygraph.

Hygraph webhook secret key

Hygraph will send the header gcms-signature on webhooks with a shared secret key set.

A gcms-signature header value looks like this:

sign=x0jU8z7AXAARIDBgsiVyfOG000wb2HhqN/mxl6+RSMk=, env=test, t=1631270481036

#Webhooks & assets

When using webhooks with the Hygraph Asset Management System, remember that asset entry creation and asset uploads are asynchronous processes.

The asset entry is created before the upload finishes, so "create" webhooks are triggered before the upload completes. This can cause external systems to fail if they expect the asset to be available when they receive the "create" webhook.

When the asset entry is created, its status is ASSET_CREATE_PENDING. It only becomes accessible via its URL once the status changes to ASSET_UPLOAD_COMPLETE.

The webhook system sends an UPDATE action for the asset model when the upload status updates to ASSET_UPLOAD_COMPLETE.

For example:

#Webhooks status for assets

#Validating webhook signatures

Using the gcms-signature header, you can validate the request came from Hygraph.

You'll need to generate a HMAC with the SHA256 hash function to generate a signature you can use to compare against the gcms-signature header.

#Hygraph utils

To make things easier for developers working with Node, we've released a small utility that will construct a new signature for you, with your values.

npm install @hygraph/utils

You'll need the request body and headers to pass to verifyWebhookSignature.

If isValid is truthy, then you can safely execute your webhook handler code knowing the request is genuine, otherwise you should abort any further action.

#Manual verification

You may also verify webhook signatures manually by generating your own signature using whatever cryptographic library can generate a SHA256 digest.

Let's break the gcms-signature header down:

sign=x0jU8z7AXAARIDBgsiVyfOG000wb2HhqN/mxl6+RSMk=, env=master, t=1631270481036

• sign= is the signature
• env= is the environment of the Hygraph project
• t= is the timestamp of the event

#Step 1: Extract the signature and timestamp from the header

First you'll need to get the signature, and timestamp from the header so they can be used to construct a new payload. If you're using JavaScript, it could look something like this:

const [rawSign, rawEnv, rawTimestamp] = signature.split(', ');

const sign = rawSign.replace('sign=', '');
const EnvironmentName = rawEnv.replace('env=', '');
const Timestamp = parseInt(rawTimestamp.replace('t=', ''));

#Step 2: Prepare the payload string

Use req.text() to read the raw request body. Webhook signatures must be verified against the exact payload sent by Hygraph. Re-serializing a parsed object can change the payload and cause verification to fail.

You'll next need to create a string of the payload that will be hashed, using the request body. If you're using JavaScript, it could look something like:

let payload = JSON.stringify({
  Body: req.text(),
  EnvironmentName,
  TimeStamp: Timestamp,
});

#Step 3: Generate the signature

Next, you'll want to generate the digest for comparison. If you're using JavaScript, it could look something like:

const { createHmac } = require('crypto');

const hash = createHmac('sha256', secret).update(payload).digest('base64');

#Step 4: Compare the signatures match!

All that's left to do is compare that the sign= value and hash match. If you're using JavaScript, this may look something like:

const isValid = sign === hash;

#Localizations with webhooks

If the webhook is configured to include entry payloads, all localized fields on the entry will be included in the webhook body under the localizations key. See the section below for some examples.

Webhook events are scoped to the entry and are not locale specific. For example, if publishing changes to an en entry localization, the webhook will still include any other localized versions of that entry in the payload.

#Example payload

Below are examples of an event on DRAFT, PUBLISHED and a custom QA stage, which include the entry payload. There is also an example without the entry payload included. Additionally, we also have an example of an event for a workflow transition step, with and without the entry payload.

In the examples below we have a Post model.

#Create a webhook

1. In your project, navigate to Project Settings > AI & Automation > Webhooks.
2. Click Add webhook.
3. Fill out the configuration for your webhook.
4. Click Add webhook to save.

#Configuration

• A name for organizing and finding your webhooks
• A short description to inform others what your webhook does
• Toggle if you want to include the payload or not
• The URL to be called
• The content model(s) that will be watched
• The content stage to be watched
• The action to be watched
• Any additional headers to pass along

#Enable / Disable webhooks

1. In your project, navigate to Project Settings > AI & Automation > Webhooks.
2. Click the context menu next to the webhook you want to edit.
3. Click Pause to disable the webhook.
   • To enable the webhook, click the context menu and then click Resume.

#Delete a webhook

1. In your project, navigate to Project Settings > AI & Automation > Webhooks.
2. Click the context menu next to the webhook you want to delete, and then click Delete.
3. Confirm you want to delete the webhook.

#Webhook logs

Hygraph stores logs for all your webhooks, which can help you debugging webhook calls and checking the returned status codes and responses from your endpoints.

Follow these steps to view your webhook logs:

1. In your project, navigate to Project Settings > AI & Automation > Webhooks.
2. Click View logs next to the webhook for which you want to check logs.

Hygraph webhook logs button

You will see a list of webhooks being sent to your specified endpoint. The logs include a timestamp, HTTP status code, the content model, the performed action and the duration of the request.

Hygraph webhook logs overview

Clicking on one of the items opens up a detail view, showing you both the request and response payload and the information from the overview. The request and response body is currently truncated at 500kb and 200kb respectively.

Hygraph webhook logs details