Agent Webhook Setup: Connect Any Service to Your OpenClaw Agent

Webhooks are the backbone of real-time automation. When something happens in an external service (a payment is processed, a PR is merged, a message is posted) a webhook sends a notification to your agent so it can respond immediately. Getting webhooks set up correctly is the difference between an agent that reacts in seconds and one that needs manual intervention.

What Is a Webhook?

A webhook is an HTTP POST request that an external service sends to a URL you control whenever a specific event occurs. Think of it as a push notification for your server. Instead of your agent polling Stripe every 30 seconds to check for new payments, Stripe sends a POST request the instant a payment goes through.

The payload contains event details: what happened, when, and the relevant data. Your agent receives it, parses it, and decides what to do. The whole cycle from event to agent action can happen in under a second.

Setting Up Stripe Webhooks

Stripe is one of the most common webhook sources for OpenClaw agents. Go to Stripe Dashboard, navigate to Developers then Webhooks, and add an endpoint URL. Stripe lets you pick which events trigger the webhook. Start with payment_intent.succeeded and customer.subscription.created, then add more as needed.

The step most people skip is webhook signature verification. Stripe signs every payload with a secret key. Your agent must verify this signature before processing. Without verification, anyone who discovers your webhook URL can send fake events and trigger your agent with fabricated data. ClawJolt handles signature verification automatically for all supported providers.

Setting Up GitHub Webhooks

GitHub webhooks fire on repository events: pushes, pull requests, issues, releases, and more. In your repo settings, add a webhook URL, select the events you want, and set a secret for payload verification.

For OpenClaw agents, the most useful GitHub events are pull_request (for code review agents), issues (for triage and labeling agents), and push (for deployment notification agents). Each event type sends a different payload structure, so your agent needs to handle them accordingly.

Handling Webhook Failures

Webhooks fail. Your server might be down, the payload might be malformed, or your agent might throw an error during processing. Most providers implement retry logic. Stripe retries failed webhooks up to 3 times over 24 hours. GitHub retries immediately then backs off.

Your agent should respond with a 200 status code as quickly as possible, even before processing the payload. Accept the webhook, queue the work, process it async. If processing takes more than a few seconds, the provider might time out and retry, leading to duplicate processing.

ClawJolt solves this with a managed webhook gateway. Incoming webhooks are acknowledged instantly, deduplicated, and queued for your agent. If your agent is temporarily offline, webhooks are stored and delivered when it comes back. The delivery dashboard shows every webhook received, its processing status, and one-click replay for any that failed.

Custom Webhook Sources

Not every service has a pre-built connector. For custom sources, ClawJolt provides a generic webhook endpoint that accepts any JSON payload. Define a transformation rule that maps the incoming payload to your agent's expected format, and your agent can respond to anything that sends webhooks: internal microservices, IoT devices, legacy systems, or custom apps.

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