Intermediate• 25 minutes

Webhook-Triggered Automations

Create automations that respond to external webhook events in real-time.

What You'll Build

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to:

Create automations triggered by webhooks
Configure webhook endpoints and security
Process incoming webhook data
Verify webhook signatures for security
Handle different webhook payload formats

Prerequisites

Before You Start

✅ A Sematryx account with an active API key
✅ Understanding of HTTP webhooks
✅ Ability to send HTTP POST requests (curl, Postman, or similar)

Step 1: Create Webhook Automation

Create an automation with a webhook trigger:

Create webhook-triggered automation

curl -X POST https://api.sematryx.com/v1/automations \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "webhook-processor",
    "trigger": {
      "type": "webhook",
      "config": {
        "path": "/webhook/process",
        "method": "POST"
      }
    },
    "actions": [
      {
        "type": "log",
        "config": {
          "message": "Received webhook: {{trigger.body}}"
        }
      },
      {
        "type": "transform",
        "config": {
          "input_format": "json",
          "output_format": "json"
        }
      }
    ]
  }'

After creation, you'll receive a webhook URL that you can use to trigger the automation.

Step 2: Get Your Webhook URL

Retrieve the webhook URL from the automation response:

Webhook URL format

https://api.sematryx.com/webhook/process?token=YOUR_WEBHOOK_TOKEN

Security Note

The webhook token is unique to your automation and should be kept secret. Anyone with the token can trigger your automation.

Step 3: Trigger the Webhook

Send a POST request to your webhook URL:

Send webhook request

curl -X POST https://api.sematryx.com/webhook/process?token=YOUR_WEBHOOK_TOKEN \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "event": "user_signup",
    "user_id": "user_123",
    "email": "user@example.com",
    "timestamp": "2024-01-01T00:00:00Z"
  }'

The automation will process the webhook payload and execute its actions.

Step 4: Using the Python SDK

You can also create and manage webhook automations using the Python SDK:

Create webhook automation with Python

from sematryx import SematryxClient

client = SematryxClient(api_key='your-api-key')

# Create webhook-triggered automation
automation = client.automations.create(
    name='webhook-processor',
    trigger={
        'type': 'webhook',
        'config': {
            'path': '/webhook/process',
            'method': 'POST'
        }
    },
    actions=[
        {
            'type': 'log',
            'config': {
                'message': 'Received webhook'
            }
        }
    ]
)

print(f'Webhook URL: {automation.trigger.webhook_url}')

Step 5: Webhook Security

For production use, always verify webhook signatures:

Verify webhook signature

import hmac
import hashlib

def verify_webhook_signature(payload, signature, secret):
    expected = hmac.new(
        secret.encode(),
        payload.encode(),
        hashlib.sha256
    ).hexdigest()
    return hmac.compare_digest(signature, expected)

Security Best Practices

Always verify webhook signatures
Use HTTPS for webhook URLs
Rotate webhook tokens regularly
Implement rate limiting on webhook endpoints
Log all webhook requests for auditing

Common Use Cases

Event Processing

Process events from external systems like payment processors, CRM systems, or analytics platforms.

Data Synchronization

Keep data in sync between different systems when changes occur.

Notifications

Trigger notifications or alerts based on external events.

Workflow Automation

Automate business workflows that span multiple systems.

🎉 Next Steps

You've learned how to create webhook-triggered automations! Continue learning:

→ Build a data transformation pipeline → Set up monitoring and alerts → Read the webhooks API documentation