Inbound Webhooks
Forward events from external services into Push Notifications and Live Activities.
Inbound webhooks let an external service POST events to ActivitySmith. Each event is turned into a Push Notification or a Live Activity on the paired iOS devices you target, with no backend code on your side.
Use inbound webhooks when you want lock-screen visibility into a service that already has its own webhook system, like CI runs, deploys, error alerts, or issue updates.
How It Works#
- Generate an inbound webhook URL in the Webhooks section.
- Paste it into the source service (GitHub, Vercel, Sentry, and so on) and pick the events you care about.
- Choose how the event is delivered: Push Notification or Live Activity.
- Map payload fields to the title, message, and metadata you want shown.
- Optionally route the event to specific channels.
Each integration ships with ready-to-use presets that cover the most common events, so you can connect a source in a few clicks. Tweak any field on a preset, or start from scratch when you want full control over the title, body, action buttons, etc.
The same source service can drive multiple webhooks. For example, you can send production deploy events to a #prod channel as a Live Activity, and preview deploys to a #previews channel as a Push Notification.
Delivery Options#
Each webhook delivers events as one of:
- Push Notification: best for short, conclusive events like a check that failed, a PR that merged, or an alert that fired.
- Live Activity: best for long-running work like CI workflows or production deploys. The Live Activity stays on the lock screen while the job runs and dismisses when it finishes.
You can also attach action buttons to the resulting notification or activity that open the source service (the GitHub run, the Sentry issue, the Vercel deployment, and so on) or trigger a backend webhook. See the SDK examples for Push Notification actions and Live Activity actions.
Channel Routing#
Inbound webhooks use the same channels as the rest of the API. Route events from a webhook to one or more channel slugs so they reach the right people or devices.
Secret Verification#
ActivitySmith verifies inbound requests with a per-webhook secret. The source service must include the secret on every request as an HTTP header:
X-ActivitySmith-Webhook-Secret: YOUR_SECRETRequests with a missing or wrong secret are rejected and logged in the delivery log so you can spot misconfigured sources.
Some integrations (like GitHub and Linear) sign their payloads with their own scheme. ActivitySmith verifies those signatures natively when you use the integration, so you do not need a separate secret.
Delivery Log#
Every webhook keeps a rolling log of recent requests. For each entry you can see:
- The raw incoming payload
- The mapped Push Notification or Live Activity that was sent
- Verification or mapping errors, if any
Use the log to debug new integrations, confirm a noisy source has been quieted down, or replay a payload while you tweak the field mapping.
Available Integrations#
Pre-built integrations handle event subscription, signature verification, and a default field mapping for you. You can override the mapping at any time.
The full integration list with setup guides lives at activitysmith.com/integrations.
Generic JSON#
If the service you want to track is not on the list, use a generic JSON webhook. Send any JSON payload to your inbound URL, paste a sample into the dashboard, and map fields like title, subtitle, body, and url onto the resulting Push Notification or Live Activity. This works for internal services, cron jobs, or third-party tools that expose webhooks but do not have a dedicated ActivitySmith integration yet.
Need an integration that is not listed? Email [email protected].
