BlogGhost Webhooks

How to Test Ghost Webhooks

Ghost webhooks fire when posts, pages, members, or tags change in your Ghost site — useful for syncing to search indexes, newsletters, or static rebuilds.

Looking for the broader picture? See the 7 best webhook testing tools (2026), or if you're already on Webhook.site, the 60-second migration to HookRay.

Ghost Official Webhook Docs

1. Ghost Webhook Events

Ghost can send the following webhook events to your endpoint:

post.published
post.unpublished
post.published.edited
post.deleted
page.added
page.deleted
member.added
member.deleted

2. Set Up a Test Endpoint with HookRay

Follow these steps to start receiving Ghost 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 Ghost 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 Ghost Webhook Payload

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

payload.json
{
  "post": {
    "current": {
      "id": "5b7ada404f87d200b9b1b9ed",
      "uuid": "5d3f3f5e-5fdb-4f5b-9b48-f0a3a3b9a2d4",
      "title": "Why we ship in public",
      "slug": "why-we-ship-in-public",
      "status": "published",
      "published_at": "2026-04-23T14:35:00.000Z",
      "authors": [
        {
          "name": "Shota Tanikawa"
        }
      ]
    },
    "previous": {
      "status": "draft"
    }
  }
}

4. Frequently Asked Questions

How do I test Ghost webhooks without deploying?

Use HookRay to get an instant public webhook URL. Paste it into your Ghost dashboard's webhook configuration, trigger an event, and watch the payload arrive in real time. No code, no ngrok, no deployment required. The free tier captures 100 requests per month and works on all Ghost event types.

Why aren't my Ghost webhooks arriving?

The four most common causes: (1) the endpoint URL isn't publicly accessible — Ghost can't reach localhost; (2) the wrong events are subscribed in your Ghost dashboard; (3) signature verification is rejecting the request before your handler runs; (4) Ghost can't reach your server because of a firewall, expired SSL certificate, or wrong DNS. Use HookRay's URL to isolate which of these four is failing — if HookRay receives the webhook, the problem is in your handler. If HookRay doesn't, the problem is in Ghost configuration.

Why am I getting 400 or 500 errors from my Ghost webhook?

Ghost reports the response status your endpoint returned. HookRay accepts any payload and returns 200 OK by default, so if you see 400/500 in your Ghost dashboard while pointing at HookRay, the issue is in Ghost's configuration (wrong event, malformed signing secret, etc.). If you point at your own endpoint and get 400/500, the issue is in your handler — capture the request with HookRay, replay it locally, and debug from the captured payload.

How do I verify Ghost webhook signatures?

Ghost signs each webhook request with a shared secret. Capture the raw headers and body using HookRay, then verify the signature in your application using Ghost's SDK or a standard HMAC library. Once verification works against HookRay-captured data, you can safely deploy. Ghost's docs (linked above) cover the exact signing algorithm.

Can I replay a captured Ghost webhook?

Yes — HookRay's replay feature re-sends any captured webhook to a different endpoint with one click. This is the fastest way to fix a buggy handler: capture the payload once, fix your code, and replay until it works. No need to re-trigger the event in Ghost.

5. Next Steps

  • Use HookRay's webhook replay feature to re-send captured webhooks while building your handler
  • Use the sample Ghost payload above as a cheat sheet for the fields you'll need to extract in your handler
  • Check the Ghost webhook documentation for the complete event reference

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Free PDF: Webhook Testing Cheat Sheet 2026

One-page reference for 50+ APIs — canonical events, signing methods, sample payloads. Print it, pin it, share it.

📄 Download the cheat sheet (PDF, 180KB)