---
title: Webhook action
description: Use the webhook action to send a request to any web service. The webhook action supports both HTTP and HTTPS connections. See Webhook action attributes...
url: https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/2472/explore-analyze/alerts-cases/watcher/actions-webhook
products:
  - Elasticsearch
applies_to:
  - Elastic Stack: Generally available in 9.0+
---

# Webhook action
Use the `webhook` action to send a request to any web service. The webhook action supports both HTTP and HTTPS connections. See [Webhook action attributes](#webhook-action-attributes) for the supported attributes.

## Configuring webhook actions

You configure webhook actions in the `actions` array. Action-specific attributes are specified using the `webhook` keyword.
The following snippet shows a simple webhook action definition:
```js
"actions" : {
  "my_webhook" : { 
    "transform" : { ... }, 
    "throttle_period" : "5m", 
    "webhook" : {
      "method" : "POST", 
      "host" : "mylisteningserver", 
      "port" : 9200, 
      "path": "/{{ctx.watch_id}}", 
      "body" : "{{ctx.watch_id}}:{{ctx.payload.hits.total}}" 
    }
  }
}
```

You can use basic authentication when sending a request to a secured webservice. For example, the following `webhook` action creates a new issue in GitHub:
```js
"actions" : {
  "create_github_issue" : {
    "transform": {
      "script": "return ['title':'Found errors in \\'contact.html\\'', 'body' : 'Found ' + ctx.payload.hits.total + ' errors in the last 5 minutes', 'assignee' : 'web-admin', 'labels' : ['bug','sev2']]"
    },
    "webhook" : {
      "method" : "POST",
      "url" : "https://api.github.com/repos/<owner>/<repo>/issues",
      "body": "{{#toJson}}ctx.payload{{/toJson}}",
      "auth" : {
        "basic" : {
          "username" : "<username>", 
          "password" : "<password>"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}
```

<note>
  By default, both the username and the password are stored in the `.watches` index in plain text. When the Elasticsearch security features are enabled, Watcher can encrypt the password before storing it.
</note>

You can also use PKI-based authentication when submitting requests to a cluster that has Elasticsearch security features enabled. When you use PKI-based authentication instead of HTTP basic auth, you don’t need to store any authentication information in the watch itself. To use PKI-based authentication, you [configure the SSL key settings](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-builder/docs/2472/reference/elasticsearch/configuration-reference/watcher-settings#ssl-notification-settings) for Watcher in [`elasticsearch.yml`](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/2472/deploy-manage/stack-settings).

## Query parameters

You can specify query parameters to send with the request with the `params` field. This field simply holds an object where the keys serve as the parameter names and the values serve as the parameter values:
```js
"actions" : {
  "my_webhook" : {
    "webhook" : {
      "method" : "POST",
      "host" : "mylisteningserver",
      "port" : 9200,
      "path": "/alert",
      "params" : {
        "watch_id" : "{{ctx.watch_id}}" 
      }
    }
  }
}
```


## Custom request headers

You can specify request headers to send with the request with the `headers` field. This field simply holds an object where the keys serve as the header names and the values serve as the header values:
```js
"actions" : {
  "my_webhook" : {
    "webhook" : {
      "method" : "POST",
      "host" : "mylisteningserver",
      "port" : 9200,
      "path": "/alert/{{ctx.watch_id}}",
      "headers" : {
        "Content-Type" : "application/yaml" 
      },
      "body" : "count: {{ctx.payload.hits.total}}"
    }
  }
}
```


## Webhook action attributes



| Name                 | Required | Default | Description                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          |
|----------------------|----------|---------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| `scheme`             | no       | http    | The connection scheme. Valid values are: `http` or `https`.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          |
| `host`               | yes      | -       | The host to connect to.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              |
| `port`               | yes      | -       | The port the HTTP service is listening on.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           |
| `path`               | no       | -       | The URL path. The path can be static text or include Mustache                                                    [templates](/elastic/docs-builder/docs/2472/explore-analyze/alerts-cases/watcher/how-watcher-works#templates). URL query string parameters must be                                                    specified via the `request.params` attribute. |
| `method`             | no       | get     | The HTTP method. Valid values are: `head`, `get`, `post`, `put`                                                    and `delete`.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| `headers`            | no       | -       | The HTTP request headers. The header values can be static text                                                    or include Mustache [templates](/elastic/docs-builder/docs/2472/explore-analyze/alerts-cases/watcher/how-watcher-works#templates).                                                                                                                 |
| `params`             | no       | -       | The URL query string parameters. The parameter values can be                                                    static text or include Mustache [templates](/elastic/docs-builder/docs/2472/explore-analyze/alerts-cases/watcher/how-watcher-works#templates).                                                                                                       |
| `auth`               | no       | -       | Authentication related HTTP headers. Currently, only basic                                                    authentication is supported.                                                                                                                                                                                                                           |
| `body`               | no       | -       | The HTTP request body. The body can be static text or include                                                    Mustache [templates](/elastic/docs-builder/docs/2472/explore-analyze/alerts-cases/watcher/how-watcher-works#templates). When not specified, an empty                                                    body is sent.                               |
| `proxy.host`         | no       | -       | The proxy host to use when connecting to the host.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   |
| `proxy.port`         | no       | -       | The proxy port to use when connecting to the host.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   |
| `connection_timeout` | no       | 10s     | The timeout for setting up the http connection. If the connection                                                    could not be set up within this time, the action will timeout and                                                    fail.                                                                                                                      |
| `read_timeout`       | no       | 10s     | The timeout for reading data from http connection. If no response                                                    was received within this time, the action will timeout and fail.                                                                                                                                                                                |
| `url`                | no       | -       | A shortcut for specifying the request scheme, host, port, and                                                    path as a single string. For example, `http://example.org/foo/my-service`.                                                                                                                                                                          |