BlogCircleCI Webhooks

How to Test CircleCI Webhooks

CircleCI webhooks notify your services about workflow and job completion events so you can trigger downstream deployments and alerts.

CircleCI Official Webhook Docs

1. CircleCI Webhook Events

CircleCI can send the following webhook events to your endpoint:

workflow-completed
job-completed

2. Set Up a Test Endpoint with HookRay

Follow these steps to start receiving CircleCI webhooks for testing:

  1. Go to HookRay and click "Start Testing — Free" to get your unique webhook URL.
  2. Copy the URL (e.g., https://h.hookray.com/abc123).
  3. In your CircleCI dashboard, navigate to the webhook settings and paste the HookRay URL as your endpoint.
  4. Select the events you want to receive (see list above).
  5. Trigger a test event — HookRay will show the incoming webhook in real-time.

3. Sample CircleCI Webhook Payload

Here's an example of what a CircleCI webhook payload looks like:

payload.json
{
  "type": "workflow-completed",
  "id": "3888f21b-eaa7-38e3-8f3d-75a63bba8895",
  "happened_at": "2026-03-20T13:15:00.000Z",
  "webhook": {
    "name": "production-deploy"
  },
  "workflow": {
    "id": "abc123-def456",
    "name": "build-and-deploy",
    "status": "success",
    "created_at": "2026-03-20T13:10:00.000Z"
  },
  "project": {
    "slug": "gh/acme/hookray"
  },
  "pipeline": {
    "number": 412
  }
}

4. Common Issues & Troubleshooting

Webhook not arriving?

Check that your endpoint URL is correct and publicly accessible. CircleCI cannot reach localhost URLs — use HookRay's cloud URL instead.

Getting 400 or 500 errors?

HookRay accepts any payload and returns 200 OK by default, so the issue is likely on CircleCI's side. Check your webhook configuration and event selection.

Need to verify webhook signatures?

CircleCI signs webhook requests for security. Use HookRay to capture the raw headers and body, then implement signature verification in your application code.

5. Next Steps

  • Use HookRay's webhook replay feature to re-send captured webhooks while building your handler
  • Enable smart parsing (Pro plan) to see CircleCI-specific fields highlighted automatically
  • Check the CircleCI webhook documentation for the complete event reference

Ready to test CircleCI webhooks?

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