Webhooks

Webhooks let Outercite send a notification to a URL you control the moment a citation event occurs. Instead of polling the API, your system receives the data as soon as Outercite has it.

What you'll learn

• What a webhook is and when to use one
• Which events Outercite can fire
• How to create a webhook in Settings > Developer
• What a webhook payload looks like (illustrative example)

What is a webhook?

A webhook is an HTTP POST request that Outercite sends to a URL you specify when a particular event happens. You provide the endpoint; Outercite sends the data to it automatically.

Webhooks are useful when you want to:

• Log citation events into your own data warehouse or analytics tool
• Trigger a workflow in a third-party automation platform (such as Make or Zapier) when a citation is lost or gained
• Update an internal dashboard without polling the Outercite API
• Fire a notification to a custom system not covered by built-in channels

Events Outercite can fire

Creating a webhook

1. Go to Settings > Developer in your Outercite workspace.
2. Click Add webhook.
3. Enter the endpoint URL where Outercite should send event payloads.
4. Select the event types you want to receive. You can subscribe to one or all events on a single webhook.
5. Click Save. Outercite will send a test ping to confirm the endpoint is reachable.

Managing existing webhooks

From Settings > Developer you can:

• List all configured webhooks and their current status
• Edit the URL or event subscriptions on an existing webhook
• Delete a webhook you no longer need

Example payload

The following is an illustrative payload showing the shape you can expect. Field names and values are consistent with Outercite's data model but this is not a guaranteed API contract. Confirm the exact shape in your workspace.

{
  "event": "citation.new",
  "timestamp": "2026-06-08T09:22:11Z",
  "workspaceId": "ws_01jab2xyz",
  "data": {
    "citationId": "cit_04kpq7mn",
    "keyword": "best project management software",
    "platform": "perplexity",
    "cited": true,
    "confidenceScore": 84,
    "citationTier": "FEATURED_RECOMMENDATION",
    "sentiment": "positive",
    "position": 1,
    "checkedAt": "2026-06-08T09:21:58Z"
  }
}

Key fields in the payload:

Securing your endpoint

Outercite recommends verifying that incoming webhook requests genuinely come from Outercite before processing them. Check the signature header provided with each request against your webhook secret (visible in Settings > Developer). Reject any request where the signature does not match.

Try this in Outercite

Create your first webhook in developer settings to start receiving citation events in real time.

Open Settings > Developer

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