How do I receive webhooks from a third-party app and trigger a workflow?

To receive webhooks from a third-party app and trigger a workflow, you generally need to:

1. Create a public webhook endpoint

   • Set up an HTTP endpoint in your app that can accept incoming POST requests.
   • Example: https://yourdomain.com/webhooks/provider-name

2. Register that endpoint in the third-party app

   • In the app’s settings, paste your webhook URL.
   • Choose which events should be sent (for example: order.created, user.updated, etc.).

3. Verify and secure the webhook

   • Use a shared secret, signature header, or token if the provider supports it.
   • Confirm incoming requests really came from the provider.
   • Respond quickly with 200 OK to avoid retries/timeouts.

4. Parse the payload

   • Read the JSON body and inspect the event type and data.
   • Example:

     {
       "event": "order.created",
       "data": {
         "id": "123",
         "amount": 49.99
       }
     }
     

5. Trigger your workflow

   • Based on the event, call your workflow engine, enqueue a job, or invoke a function.
   • Examples:
     • Start a Zapier/Make/n8n workflow
     • Send a message to a queue (SQS, RabbitMQ, etc.)
     • Call an internal API endpoint
     • Trigger a CI/CD pipeline or serverless function

6. Handle retries and idempotency

   • Webhooks can be delivered more than once.
   • Store the webhook ID or event ID so you don’t process duplicates.

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Simple example in Node.js / Express

import express from "express";

const app = express();
app.use(express.json());

app.post("/webhooks/provider", async (req, res) => {
  const event = req.body.event;

  if (event === "order.created") {
    // trigger your workflow here
    console.log("Triggering workflow for order:", req.body.data.id);
  }

  res.sendStatus(200);
});

app.listen(3000, () => console.log("Listening on port 3000"));

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If you want no-code/low-code

You can use tools like:

• n8n: Webhook node → workflow
• Zapier: Webhooks trigger → actions
• Make: Custom webhook → scenario
• Pipedream: HTTP trigger → code/workflows

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If you want, I can show you:

• a secure webhook receiver example,
• how to do this in Python / FastAPI, Node, or Go,
• or how to connect it to n8n/Zapier/Make.