Webhook Settings

Learn how to configure webhook message templates to extract data from incoming JSON payloads.

Message Template Syntax

When creating a webhook, you define a message template that determines how incoming JSON data is formatted into notifications.

Basic Patterns

Pattern	Description
*	Output the entire JSON payload
%field%	Extract a top-level field
%object.field%	Extract a nested field
%array.0%	Get first element of an array
%array.0.field%	Get a field from array element

Examples

Example JSON Payload

Consider this incoming webhook payload:

{
  "event": {
    "title": "New Order",
    "message": "A new order has been placed with ID 12345",
    "tags": ["order", "new"],
    "users": [
      {"first": "Dale", "last": "Murphy", "age": 44, "nets": ["ig", "fb", "tw"]},
      {"first": "Roger", "last": "Craig", "age": 68, "nets": ["fb", "tw"]},
      {"first": "Jane", "last": "Murphy", "age": 47, "nets": ["ig", "tw"]}
    ]
  }
}

Template Configuration

Full JSON

*

Extracted Fields

Title: %event.title%
Message: %event.message%
Tags: %event.tags%
Users: %event.users.0%
First user: %event.users.0.first% %event.users.0.last%

Output Result

Title: New Order
Message: A new order has been placed with ID 12345
Tags: ["order","new"]
Users: {"age":44,"first":"Dale","last":"Murphy","nets":["ig","fb","tw"]}
First user: Dale Murphy

Common Integrations

GitHub Webhooks

🔔 %action%: %repository.full_name%
%sender.login%: %commits.0.message%

Sentry Error Tracking

🚨 %project_name%: %message%
Level: %level%
URL: %url%

Grafana Alerts

⚠️ %state%: %title%

%message%

Status: %status%

Uptime Robot

🔴 %monitorFriendlyName%
Status: %alertTypeFriendlyName%
Details: %alertDetails%

Advanced Path Syntax

For complex JSON extraction, we use GJSON Path Syntax.

Useful Patterns

Pattern	Description
%users.#%	Count of array items
%users.#.first%	Array of all first values
%users.@reverse%	Reverse array order
%data.@pretty%	Pretty-print JSON

Learn More

Full documentation: GJSON Path Syntax

Priority Level

Incoming payloads may carry a level field to control how the push is delivered — a name (silent, low, default, high, critical) or an int (-2..2). See Message priority levels.

Resolution order (first match wins):

1. The level field in the incoming JSON payload
2. The webhook's default_level (set when creating the webhook)
3. The application's default level
4. default (normal)

Unlike the direct API, webhook input is lenient: an unrecognized level value is ignored (falling back to the defaults) rather than rejected, so alerts are never dropped.

Action Buttons

A webhook can attach up to 3 action buttons to every notification it generates. Set the actions field (a JSON string) when creating or updating the webhook — see Create Webhook → Action Buttons Template.

label and value support the same %field.path% placeholders as the message template, so buttons can be built from the incoming payload:

[
  { "type": "view", "label": "Open PR", "value": "%pull_request.html_url%" },
  { "type": "http", "label": "Merge", "value": "{\"url\":\"https://ci.example.com/merge/%pull_request.number%\",\"method\":\"POST\"}" }
]

After substitution the array is validated (max 3, type ∈ view/http/copy, http requires a url). Like level parsing, this is lenient: invalid actions are dropped and the notification is still delivered.

After creating a webhook, you can test it:

cURL

curl -X POST "https://api.pocketalert.app/v1/webhooks/receive/YOUR_WEBHOOK_URL" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"event": {"title": "Test", "message": "Hello World"}}'

JavaScript

await fetch('https://api.pocketalert.app/v1/webhooks/receive/YOUR_WEBHOOK_URL', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    event: { title: 'Test', message: 'Hello World' }
  })
});

Python

import requests

requests.post(
    'https://api.pocketalert.app/v1/webhooks/receive/YOUR_WEBHOOK_URL',
    json={'event': {'title': 'Test', 'message': 'Hello World'}}
)

PHP

Http::post('https://api.pocketalert.app/v1/webhooks/receive/YOUR_WEBHOOK_URL', [
    'event' => [
        'title' => 'Test',
        'message' => 'Hello World',
    ],
]);

This will send a test notification to your devices using your configured message template.