Quick Start

Webhook Watchtower sits between your provider (Stripe, GitHub, Shopify, or any custom source) and your application. Your provider sends webhooks to a Watchtower ingest URL instead of directly to your server. We verify the signature, log the full payload, and forward it to your endpoint with automatic retries if delivery fails.

What you'll need

• A Webhook Watchtower account (free to start)
• A webhook provider account with an endpoint you can configure
• A publicly accessible destination URL (your own server or a tunnelling tool like ngrok for local development)

Step 1: Create a workspace

A workspace holds all your sources, destinations, and events. If you're setting up for the first time, the onboarding flow creates one automatically. If you already have a workspace, skip ahead.

Give it a name that maps to your team or project. Most teams use a single workspace.

Step 2: Add a source

A source represents one inbound webhook feed, typically one provider sending to you.

1. Open your workspace and go to Sources.
2. Click Add source.
3. Choose a provider preset (Stripe, GitHub, or Shopify) or select Custom for any HMAC-SHA256 provider.
4. Paste your signing secret from the provider's dashboard. This is the value they call "webhook secret", "signing secret", or similar.
5. Save the source. A unique ingest URL is generated.

Copy that ingest URL. You'll paste it into your provider's dashboard in the next step.

Step 3: Configure your provider

Go to your provider's webhook settings and replace your existing endpoint URL with the Watchtower ingest URL. Exact navigation varies by provider:

• Stripe: Developers → Webhooks → Add endpoint
• GitHub: Repository or organisation Settings → Webhooks → Add webhook
• Shopify: Settings → Notifications → Webhooks

Leave any other settings (event types, API version) as they are.

Step 4: Add a destination

A destination is where Watchtower forwards events after they're received and verified.

1. Go to Destinations in your workspace.
2. Click Add destination.
3. Enter your endpoint URL (the URL your application listens on for webhooks).
4. Link it to the source you just created.
5. Save.

Step 5: Trigger a test event

Send a test event from your provider's dashboard. In Stripe, that's the Send test webhook button. In GitHub, use Redeliver on any recent delivery.

The event should appear in your dashboard within a few seconds. You'll see the payload, headers, verification status, and delivery result.

That's it. Events now flow through Watchtower with full logging and automatic retries.

Next steps

• Signature verification: understand what Verified, Failed, and Skipped mean
• Retries and delivery: how retry logic works when your endpoint is unavailable
• Replaying events: replay any past event on demand