Triggering a workflow with a webhook

A webhook lets an external system fire a CloudRadial AutomationAI workflow with an HTTP request. This article is for Admins and Owners and covers enabling the webhook trigger on a workflow's Start node, the generated URL and secret, how the request payload reaches the workflow, and how a webhook differs from the Integration Key.

• Enabling the Webhook Trigger
• The Webhook URL and Secret
• How the Payload Reaches the Workflow
• Webhook vs. the Integration Key

Enabling the Webhook Trigger

The webhook is the Start node's trigger, configured from the workflow's Properties page. Open the workflow in the Designer, select Properties, and find the Webhook section. Turn on Enable webhook. Toggling the webhook saves to the draft automatically, and the change takes effect when you publish the workflow. While the webhook is off, requests to the workflow's webhook URL return 404.

The Webhook URL and Secret

With the webhook enabled, AutomationAI shows a generated Webhook URL and a Secret, each with a Copy button. Callers must send the secret in the X-Crauto-Webhook-Secret request header; requests without a matching header are rejected with 401. Use Regenerate to roll the secret — the old secret is invalidated once you publish, so keep both the URL and the secret confidential. The section also provides a ready-to-run example request you can copy.

How the Payload Reaches the Workflow

POST a JSON body to the webhook URL to fire the workflow. The body lands in the workflow as the trigger output, which your nodes read with binding expressions of the form {{ nodes.trigger.output.<field> }}. For example, a body containing an order id is available as {{ nodes.trigger.output.orderId }}. For the full data contract between nodes, see the article on passing data between nodes.

Webhook vs. the Integration Key

A webhook secret is scoped to a single workflow and authenticates inbound requests to that workflow's trigger. The Integration Key is different: it is a static API key that ServiceAI uses to poll your workspace's webhook catalog. The two are managed separately — webhook settings live on a workflow's Properties page, while the Integration Key lives under Settings > Integrations. For details on the Integration Key, see the article on connecting ServiceAI with an Integration Key.