The traditional webhook model is straightforward: an event happens, your endpoint receives an HTTP POST, you process it and respond with a 200. It works well when you have a server that’s always online, always reachable, and ready to handle events the moment they arrive.
That model doesn’t fit every situation. Some teams run batch jobs that process events on a schedule. Others operate behind firewalls that block inbound traffic. Some need to control the pace of event processing to avoid overwhelming downstream systems. For all of these cases, real-time webhook delivery creates friction that has nothing to do with the events themselves.
Today we’re releasing pull endpoints, a new endpoint type in Hookbridge that lets you retrieve webhook events through the API instead of receiving them via HTTP delivery.
How Pull Endpoints Work
External providers send webhooks to a Hookbridge ingestion URL, the same way inbound endpoints work. The difference is that Hookbridge stores the events and waits for you to retrieve them rather than delivering them to a URL.
Creating a pull endpoint works the same way as creating an inbound endpoint, except you don’t provide a destination URL. Create it within an application, assign event types if you want to filter, and start pulling when you’re ready.
Retrieving events is an API call:
GET /v1/pull-endpoints/{pull_endpoint_id}/events?status=stored
The response includes the full message payloads. Events move through three statuses: stored when first received, fetched once you retrieve them, and delivered after you explicitly acknowledge them. The default query returns only stored events, so each pull gives you what’s new.
Filtering and Pagination
The pull API gives you control over which events you retrieve.
You can filter by event type to retrieve only specific events like payment.completed. You can filter by time range to pull everything after a timestamp or within a window. You can also filter by status to see only stored events, fetched events, or all events regardless.
Events come back in chronological order based on when Hookbridge received them, oldest first. Results use cursor-based pagination with a configurable page size up to 1,000 events per request.
Delivery Status Tracking
After you acknowledge events, payloads are cleaned up automatically and event metadata is retained for monitoring.
This gives you queue-like semantics where you can always tell what’s new versus what’s already been consumed while keeping a record of everything that’s been processed.
When Pull Endpoints Make Sense
Pull endpoints are built for workflows where real-time webhook delivery adds unnecessary complexity.
If your system processes events on a schedule rather than in real time, pull endpoints let you collect events and consume them when your batch job runs. There’s no need to receive events as they arrive and buffer them yourself.
Teams behind firewalls or in networks that restrict inbound traffic don’t need to configure ingress rules or set up tunnels. Pull endpoints only require outbound HTTPS requests to the Hookbridge API.
When event volume spikes, real-time delivery can overwhelm a consumer that isn’t scaled to handle the load. With pull endpoints, you control the pace. Process what you can handle and come back for the rest.
If running a publicly accessible HTTP server just to receive webhooks feels like overkill for your use case then pull endpoints remove that requirement entirely. A cron job or a script is enough.
Pull endpoints return events in chronological order, which matters when processing order is important. Retrieve events sequentially and handle them in the exact order they were received, without worrying about out-of-order retries muddling the sequence.
Pull Endpoints in the Console
The Hookbridge console now has a Pull tab alongside the existing Inbound and Outbound tabs. From there you can create and manage pull endpoints, browse stored events, and filter by type or status.
Pricing
Pull endpoints are priced the same as inbound endpoints. No additional charges, no separate tier.
Getting Started
Pull endpoints are available now for all Hookbridge accounts. Create your first pull endpoint through the console or the API, and check the pull endpoints documentation for the full API reference and code examples.