Webhooks

Kick off Cloud Agents from external events

Webhook

Overview

Webhooks allow you to trigger Background Agents automatically when external events occur. When a webhook receives data, it kicks off an agent session with the webhook payload appended to the prompt, executing your chosen agent in a specified repository.

Quick Start

1. Create a Webhook

Navigate to Settings → Webhooks and click Create Webhook.

SCREENSHOT - Settings webhooks page showing the “Create Webhook” button in the top-right corner

2. Configure Your Webhook

Fill in the required fields:

• Name: A descriptive name for your webhook (e.g., “Zapier Bug Reports”)
• Agent: Select which agent to kick off when triggered
• Repository: Choose the repository where the agent will run
• Advanced Settings (Optional):
  • Secret Header Name: Custom HTTP header for authentication (e.g., X-Webhook-Secret)
  • Secret Value: Secret token used to verify incoming request headers.

SCREENSHOT - Create webhook dialog showing all fields including name, agent selector, repository dropdown, and collapsed advanced settings section

3. Copy Your Webhook URL

After creating the webhook, copy the unique webhook URL from the webhooks table.

SCREENSHOT - Webhooks table showing a webhook entry with the URL column highlighted and a copy button

Format: https://api.continue.dev/webhooks/ingest/{webhook-id}

4. Use Your Webhook URL

Configure your external service (Zapier, Make, GitHub Actions, etc.) to POST data to this URL.

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Integration Examples

Zapier

1. Create a new Zap with your desired trigger (e.g., “New Email in Gmail”)
2. Add a “Webhooks by Zapier” action
3. Choose “POST” as the method
4. Paste your webhook URL
5. Configure the payload data (e.g., email subject, body, sender)
6. (Optional) Add a custom header with your secret if configured

SCREENSHOT - Zapier webhook configuration showing POST method, webhook URL field, and payload data configuration with example fields

Example payload sent to agent:

{
  "subject": "Bug: Login button not working",
  "body": "Users are reporting that the login button...",
  "sender": "[e-mail]",
  "priority": "high"
}

GitHub Actions

Trigger agents from CI/CD pipelines:

name: Trigger Agent on Failed Test
on:
  push:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  notify-on-failure:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Run Tests
        id: tests
        run: npm test

      - name: Trigger Webhook on Failure
        if: failure()
        run: |
          curl -X POST https://api.continue.dev/webhooks/ingest/YOUR-WEBHOOK-ID \
            -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
            -d '{
              "event": "test_failure",
              "branch": "${{ github.ref_name }}",
              "commit": "${{ github.sha }}",
              "workflow": "${{ github.workflow }}"
            }'

cURL (Manual Testing)

Test your webhook directly:

curl -X POST https://api.continue.dev/webhooks/ingest/YOUR-WEBHOOK-ID \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"test": "data", "message": "Hello from webhook"}'

How It Works

┌─────────────────┐
│ External Service│
│  (Zapier, etc.) │
└────────┬────────┘
         │ POST /webhooks/ingest/{id}
         │ + Payload Data
         ▼
┌─────────────────┐
│  Continue API   │  1. Validate webhook
│                 │  2. Check authentication
└────────┬────────┘
         │
         ▼
┌─────────────────┐
│  Agent Session  │  3. Spawn agent with:
│                 │     - Your chosen agent
│                 │     - Selected repository
│                 │     - Webhook payload appended to prompt
└─────────────────┘

What Happens When Triggered

1. Validation: Continue validates the webhook exists and is enabled
2. Authentication: If configured, verifies the secret header matches
3. Agent Creation: Spawns a new agent session with:
   • The agent you selected
   • The repository you specified
   • The entire webhook payload (JSON) as the agent’s prompt
4. Execution: The agent processes the data and performs its configured tasks

---

Managing Webhooks

View All Webhooks

Navigate to Settings → Webhooks to see all configured webhooks.

SCREENSHOT - Webhooks table showing multiple webhooks with columns: Name, Agent, Repository, URL, Status (enabled/disabled), Created date, and Actions

Enable/Disable Webhooks

Use the toggle switch to temporarily disable webhooks without deleting them.

SCREENSHOT - Close-up of webhook table row with enabled toggle switch highlighted

Edit Webhooks

Click the edit button to modify webhook configuration. You can change:

• Name
• Agent
• Repository
• Authentication settings (optional)

Delete Webhooks

Click the delete button and confirm. This permanently removes the webhook and invalidates the URL.

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Troubleshooting

Webhook Not Triggering

1. Check webhook is enabled - Look for the toggle in the webhooks table
2. Verify URL is correct - Copy the URL directly from the table
3. Test with cURL - Use the manual testing example above
4. Check authentication - Ensure header name and value match exactly

Authentication Failures

• Header names are case-insensitive but must match exactly
• Secret values are case-sensitive
• Both header name and value must be provided together
• Re-save the webhook if you recently changed secrets

Agent Not Running as Expected

• Verify the agent works when triggered manually
• Check that the repository is accessible
• Examine the agent session logs for errors
• The webhook payload is passed as JSON to the agent’s prompt

Where to Find Logs

Agent sessions triggered by webhooks appear in Agents → Sessions with the name format: Webhook: {webhook-name}

SCREENSHOT - Agent sessions list showing a session with name “Webhook: Zapier Bug Reports” and webhook source icon

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Use Cases

Bug Tracking Integration

Automatically investigate and create PRs for bugs reported via external systems.

Customer Support

Trigger agents when support tickets are created to gather context and suggest solutions.

Monitoring Alerts

Respond to production issues automatically when monitoring tools detect problems.

Form Submissions

Process form data, validate inputs, and execute follow-up actions.

Scheduled Tasks (via Zapier Schedule)

Run agents on a schedule by using Zapier’s scheduler as the trigger.

CI/CD Integration

Trigger agents on build failures, deployment events, or test results.

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Limits and Considerations

• Each webhook creates a new agent session
• Agent sessions consume organization resources
• Webhook URLs are unique and non-guessable UUIDs
• Payloads are stored as part of the agent session
• Maximum payload size: Follows standard HTTP request limits (~10MB)
• Rate limiting may apply to prevent abuse

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API Reference

Endpoint

POST https://api.continue.dev/webhooks/ingest/{webhook-id}

Request Headers

Header	Required	Description
Content-Type	Yes	Must be application/json
{Your-Secret-Header}	Conditional	Required if webhook has authentication enabled

Request Body

Any valid JSON payload. This will appended to the Agent’s prompt.

Response Codes

Code	Description
200	Success - Agent session created
401	Authentication failed - Invalid secret
403	Webhook is disabled
404	Webhook not found
500	Server error

Success Response

{
  "success": true,
  "agentSessionId": "uuid-of-created-session"
}

Error Response

{
  "success": false,
  "error": "Error message description"
}

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Creating Agents for Webhooks

When a webhook triggers an agent, the incoming JSON payload is stringified and appended to your agent’s prompt. Design your agent prompts to handle this structured data.

Agent files consist of YAML frontmatter and a markdown prompt. When triggered, the final prompt becomes:

{agent prompt}

{stringified webhook payload}

Example: Bug Report Handler

Here’s an agent designed to handle bug reports from webhooks:

---
name: Bug Report Investigator
tools: Read,Search,Bash,Fetch
rules: continuedev/github-issue-creation-rules
---

You are a bug investigation agent. When you receive a bug report:

1. Extract the bug details (title, description, priority, reporter)
2. Search the codebase for related error messages or functions
3. Document your findings and root cause analysis
4. Create a detailed GitHub issue with your investigation

Expected webhook data:
{
"title": "Bug description",
"description": "Details and reproduction steps",
"priority": "high|medium|low",
"reporter": "email or name"
}

Here's the bug report data:

The agent prompt should clearly describe the expected data structure and what actions to take. When Zapier or another service sends a webhook with bug details, the agent automatically investigates the issue and creates a GitHub issue with findings.

Create agents at https://hub.continue.dev/new?type=agents, then reference them by slug (e.g., username/bug-investigator) when setting up webhooks.

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Next Steps

• Create your first webhook in Settings → Webhooks
• Design an agent to handle your webhook data
• Test with cURL to verify it works
• Connect to your favorite automation tool
• Monitor agent sessions to see results