Quick Start

Get up and running with HookWatch in under 5 minutes. This guide will walk you through creating your first webhook endpoint and testing it.

Prerequisites

  • A HookWatch account (sign up for free)
  • A destination URL where you want webhooks forwarded (your server)
  • curl or any HTTP client for testing

Step 1: Create an account

If you don't have an account yet, sign up for free. No credit card required.

After signing up, you'll be taken to the dashboard where you can manage your endpoints and view webhook events.

Step 2: Create your first endpoint

  1. Go to the Endpoints page
  2. Click the "Create Endpoint" button
  3. Enter a name for your endpoint (e.g., "Stripe Webhooks")
  4. Enter your destination URL where webhooks should be forwarded
  5. Click "Create"

Your endpoint URL

After creating the endpoint, you'll receive a unique webhook URL like:

https://hook.hookwatch.dev/wh/abc123xyz

This is the URL you'll use in your webhook provider's settings (e.g., Stripe, GitHub, Shopify).

Step 3: Test with curl

Before configuring your webhook provider, let's test the endpoint with a simple curl command:

Terminal

Replace YOUR_SLUG

Replace YOUR_SLUG with the actual slug from your endpoint URL.

Test locally with the CLI

Forward webhooks directly to your local development server in real-time. No ngrok required.

hookwatch my-endpoint --forward http://localhost:3000 Learn more about the CLI →

Step 4: View the event

After sending the test webhook, go to the Events page to see it logged.

You'll see:

  • Delivery status - Whether the webhook was successfully forwarded
  • Response code - The HTTP status code from your destination server
  • Headers - All headers sent with the webhook
  • Body - The full request body
  • Retry information - If delivery failed, retry count and next retry time

Step 5: Configure your webhook provider

Now that you've verified everything works, configure your webhook provider to use your HookWatch URL:

Stripe

Payment webhooks

GitHub

Repository events

Shopify

E-commerce webhooks

What's next?

  • Use the CLI to forward webhooks to your local machine for development
  • Try the Interactive UI for a visual dashboard (hookwatch ui)
  • Set up Cron Jobs to schedule shell commands on your CLI agent
  • Explore the Endpoints API to create and manage endpoints programmatically