Set up a webhook

A webhook sends each alert you choose to an address of your own, as a small JSON message, as soon as each alert is due. A new match can become a row in a spreadsheet, a card on a project board or a task for your bid team without anyone copying it across. You set it up once from your settings.

Webhooks are included in the Pro and Business plans. If you are on Free, the Connect button shows the upgrade options instead. See plans and pricing for what each plan includes.

Before you start

You need an address that accepts incoming messages. Most automation tools create one for you:

• Zapier: Connect Zapier
• Make: Connect Make
• n8n: Connect n8n

You can also use an address on your own server. It must use HTTPS on the standard HTTPS port and be reachable from the public internet.

Connect a webhook

1. Open Settings, then Integrations.
2. Under Alerts in your tools, find the card headed Webhooks and press Connect.
3. Paste your address into the Webhook URL box. If you are not sure where to find it, open How to get this URL for short steps for each tool.
4. Optionally give the connection a name in Name (optional), for example "Bid team channel". Names help when you add more than one connection.
5. Under Send these events, tick the events you want.
6. Press Save connection.
7. Copy your signing secret when it appears. Your tool can use it to check that a message really came from TenderSignal.
8. Press Send test event. A sample message arrives straight away, so your tool can learn the shape of the data before the first real alert.

The events you can choose

• New matches: one message per saved search per day when it has new matches.
• Deadline reminders: when a watched tender is 7 days and 2 days from its deadline.
• Renewals in your sectors: once a week, contracts in your sectors entering their six-month renewal window.
• Changes to watched tenders: an amendment, a deadline change or a cancellation on a tender you watch.

On Business you also see Competitor awards (a supplier you follow wins a contract) and Tender watched (a tender is added to your watchlist).

The full list of events, example messages and instructions for checking the signature are on the webhook guide.

Check that it is working

Each connection shows a status badge: Connected, Failing, Paused or Paused by plan. Press Send log on a connection to see its most recent sends, with the time, the event, the result and any error detail. Press Hide send log to close it.

Change, pause or remove a connection

• Tick or untick events on the connection at any time. A connection must keep at least one event.
• Pause stops messages without deleting anything, and Resume starts them again.
• Show signing secret displays your secret again if you need it.
• Add another creates a second connection, for example one tool for matches and another for deadlines.
• Disconnect removes the connection, and alerts stop straight away.

Good to know

• If your plan changes and no longer includes webhooks, the connection shows Paused by plan and comes back when you upgrade.
• If a connection shows Failing, the error is shown beneath its name. Check the address in your tool, then press Send test event again.
• Use Send test event after any change to your tool, so you know the new setup works before the next real alert.