Instead of asking 'anything new?' every minute, a webhook registers a callback: Stripe POSTs to your endpoint when a payment clears, GitHub when code lands, a form tool when someone submits. The internet's plumbing for events.
Two disciplines make them reliable: verifying the signature so only the real sender's events count, and idempotent handlers so the inevitable redeliveries do not double-charge or double-email. Most 'the webhook fired twice' bugs are really 'the handler was not idempotent'.
Related terms
Workflow automation
Making a repeated business process run itself — a trigger starts it, steps move the data between systems, and exceptions reach a human.
Idempotency
The property that performing an operation twice produces the same result as once — the thing that makes retries safe in payment, order and automation systems.
n8n
An open-source workflow-automation tool that connects apps, APIs and AI models into repeatable pipelines — self-hostable, so data can stay on your own infrastructure.
The bench this belongs to
AI automationThe repetitive half of your week, handed to software that does not get bored. Inbox triage, follow-ups, reporting, data entry between tools that were never meant to talk.
