Outgoing webhooks

Outgoing webhooks send messages from a channel to another service, like Slack’s and Mattermost’s. Use them to connect a bot you already run.

Add one

In the channel’s settings (the gear icon), add an outgoing webhook with:

the URL Sideporch sends messages to;
optionally, trigger words such as !deploy. Then only messages starting with one go out; without them, every message does.

Only people’s messages go out, never those of bots or automations, so two bots can’t set each other off in a loop.

What Sideporch sends

A POST with JSON:

{
  "token": "…",
  "channel_id": 4,
  "channel_name": "ops",
  "message_id": 1234,
  "thread_id": null,
  "user_id": 7,
  "user_name": "ada",
  "user_display_name": "Ada",
  "text": "!deploy api",
  "trigger_word": "!deploy",
  "timestamp": 1790000000,
  "url": "https://chat.example.com/c/4/m/1234"
}

Check token against the one shown in the channel’s settings to know the request came from your Sideporch. thread_id is set when the message is a reply in a thread.

If the service answers with JSON that has text, Sideporch posts it in the channel as the webhook, or in the thread when the message was a reply in one. Add "response_type": "comment" to answer in the message’s thread even when it wasn’t. username and icon_url (or icon_emoji) change who the answer appears to be from.

{ "text": "Deploying **api**…", "response_type": "comment" }

Requests go through the same guarded client as automations: addresses on private networks are refused unless an admin allows them under Automations → Settings.

For anything more involved, write an automation.