Webhook
mechanism for event-driven callbacks used in web development
In web development, a webhook is a method of augmenting or altering the behavior of a web page or web application with custom callbacks. These callbacks may be maintained, modified, and managed by third-party users who need not be affiliated with the originating website or application. In 2007, Jeff Lindsay coined the term webhook from the computer programming term hook.
Function
Webhooks are "user-defined HTTP callbacks". They are usually triggered by some event, such as pushing code to a repository, a purchase, a comment being posted to a blog and many more use cases. When that event occurs, the source site makes an HTTP request to the URL configured for the webhook. Users can configure them to cause events on one site to invoke behavior on another.
Common uses are to trigger builds with continuous integration systems or to notify bug tracking systems. Because webhooks use HTTP, they can be integrated into web services without adding new infrastructure. As of 2025, half of surveyed API teams reported using webhooks, alongside WebSockets and GraphQL, as a complement to REST.
Authenticating the webhook notification
When the client (the originating website or application) makes a webhook call to the third-party user's server, the incoming POST request should be authenticated to avoid a spoofing attack and its timestamp verified to avoid a replay attack.
“Webhook” enters the record as mechanism for event-driven callbacks used in web development. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Webhook, mechanism and event-driven can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Webhook” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Webhook, mechanism and event-driven provides the most credible route into that argument.
Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2553302. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2007 and 2025.
Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.
- Event chronology
- Institutional context
- Locating named record creators
Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Webhook”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Webhook primary sources, Webhook archive and Webhook research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Webhook”?
- Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
- What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Webhook” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.