GUIDEAPI & Developers

Webhooks — Real-Time Event Notifications

4 min read

Webhooks provide real-time, push-based notifications when events occur in your Data Mammoth account. Instead of repeatedly polling the API to check for changes, webhooks deliver event data directly to your application as soon as something happens.

How Webhooks Work

You register a webhook URL — An HTTPS endpoint on your server that receives event data.

An event occurs — A server status change, new invoice, or ticket update happens.

Data Mammoth sends a POST request — Event details are sent to your webhook URL as a JSON payload.

Your application processes the event — Your code handles the notification (send alerts, update dashboards, trigger workflows).

Setting Up a Webhook

Via the API

curl -X POST "https://api.datamammoth.com/v1/webhooks" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer dm_key_abc123def456" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "url": "https://yourapp.example.com/webhooks/datamammoth",
    "events": ["server.status_changed", "billing.invoice_created"],
    "secret": "your_webhook_secret_key"
  }'

Via the Dashboard

Navigate to Account Settings > Webhooks or API Settings.

Click Add Webhook.

Enter your webhook URL.

Select the events you want to receive.

Optionally set a webhook secret for signature verification.

Click Save.

Available Events

Server Events

Event	Description
`server.created`	A new server was provisioned
`server.deleted`	A server was permanently deleted
`server.status_changed`	Server status changed (started, stopped, etc.)
`server.upgraded`	Server plan was upgraded
`server.backup_completed`	A backup was created successfully
`server.backup_failed`	A backup attempt failed

Billing Events

Event	Description
`billing.invoice_created`	A new invoice was generated
`billing.invoice_paid`	An invoice was paid
`billing.invoice_overdue`	An invoice is past due
`billing.payment_failed`	An automatic payment failed
`billing.subscription_cancelled`	A subscription was cancelled

Support Events

Event	Description
`support.ticket_created`	A new ticket was opened
`support.ticket_replied`	A reply was added to a ticket
`support.ticket_resolved`	A ticket was resolved
`support.ticket_closed`	A ticket was closed

Webhook Payload

Each webhook delivers a JSON payload with the event details:

{
  "event": "server.status_changed",
  "timestamp": "2026-03-17T14:30:00Z",
  "data": {
    "server_id": "srv_abc123",
    "name": "web-production",
    "previous_status": "running",
    "new_status": "stopped",
    "ip": "203.0.113.10"
  },
  "webhook_id": "wh_xyz789"
}

Verifying Webhook Signatures

To ensure webhook requests are genuinely from Data Mammoth, verify the signature included in each request header:

X-Webhook-Signature: sha256=abc123...

Verify by computing the HMAC-SHA256 of the request body using your webhook secret:

import hmac
import hashlibdef verify_signature(payload, signature, secret):
    expected = hmac.new(
        secret.encode('utf-8'),
        payload.encode('utf-8'),
        hashlib.sha256
    ).hexdigest()
    return hmac.compare_digest(f"sha256={expected}", signature)

Always verify signatures before processing webhook data to prevent spoofed requests.

Managing Webhooks

List Webhooks

GET /v1/webhooks

Update a Webhook

PATCH /v1/webhooks/{webhook_id}

Delete a Webhook

DELETE /v1/webhooks/{webhook_id}

View Webhook Delivery History

GET /v1/webhooks/{webhook_id}/deliveries

This shows recent delivery attempts, including status codes, timestamps, and any failures.

Webhook Best Practices

Use HTTPS — Always use an HTTPS endpoint for security.

Verify signatures — Check the webhook signature on every request.

Respond quickly — Return a 200 OK response within 5 seconds. Process the data asynchronously if needed.

Handle retries — If your endpoint returns an error, Data Mammoth retries the delivery. Make your handler idempotent.

Log deliveries — Log incoming webhook data for debugging and auditing.

Monitor failures — Check webhook delivery history for failed deliveries.

Retry Policy

If your endpoint returns a non-2xx status code or times out:

Retries occur with exponential backoff.
Up to 5 retry attempts over several hours.
After all retries fail, the delivery is marked as failed.
You can view failed deliveries in the webhook delivery history.

What to Do Next

API Overview — Full API reference.
API Rate Limits & Best Practices — Optimize API usage.
API Code Examples — Python — Webhook handler examples.
Server Management API — Server event details.

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