Webhooks

Open Settings → Advanced & security → Webhooks to tell another system every time something here changes: an animal adopted, a person added, a donation logged. The other system can be Zapier, Make, a spreadsheet script or your own website. Each address you add is an endpoint: an https address RescueConsole sends a signed message to whenever a record changes. Only an Organization admin can see and manage webhooks. Anyone else who opens the page is told Only an organization admin can manage webhooks.

Every message carries what changed, including personal details of the people involved. Send it only to systems you trust.

Adding an endpoint

Get an address from the other system

In Zapier, make a Zap that starts with Webhooks by Zapier → Catch Hook and copy the address it gives you. In Make, use a Custom webhook. Your own code needs an https address that accepts a POST.

Add it

Press Add an endpoint. In the New endpoint card, give it a Label, such as Zapier: new adoptions, and paste the Address.

Choose what it hears about

Tick the workspaces and the changes it should be sent. Leave a group with nothing ticked to be sent all of them. Press Add endpoint.

Copy the signing secret

The signing secret is shown once. Copy it if your own code will check messages, then press I’ve saved it.

Test it

Press Test on the endpoint and read the answer under it.

Field	What it means
Label	Required. What is on the other end, up to 80 characters.
Address	Required. It must start with `https://`, must not carry a username or password, and cannot point back at RescueConsole.
Which workspaces	People, Organizations, Animals, Fundraising, Shifts, Events, Public Registry, Communications. None ticked means all of them.
Which changes	Created, Changed, Deleted, Status changed. None ticked means all of them.

An organization can have up to 20 endpoints. Add an endpoint is greyed out once you have 20. The page does not edit an endpoint’s address or choices once it is added. To change them, add a new endpoint and remove the old one.

The signing secret

The signing secret is what proves a message came from RescueConsole. It is shown once, when the endpoint is added and each time it is rotated, in a panel headed Copy the signing secret for “Zapier: new adoptions” now. This is the only time it is shown. It starts whsec_. Zapier and Make do not need it. Your own code should use it to check the signature on every message. If it is lost, rotate it and paste the new one where your code keeps it.

Each endpoint

Each endpoint in the list shows its label, its address, which workspaces and changes it is sent, and the last delivery: when, the answer it gave (such as HTTP 200), and how many deliveries have failed in a row. Nothing delivered yet means just that.

Button	What it does
Test	Sends a test message now, signed like a real one, and shows the answer: Delivered. The endpoint answered 200 in 140 ms. or Not delivered: with the reason. A failed test counts as a failed delivery.
Switch off	Stops sending to this endpoint. It is marked Switched off. Press Switch on to start again. Changes made while it was off are not sent later.
Rotate secret	Makes a new signing secret and shows it once. The old secret stops working at once, so update your code straight away.
Remove	Asks you to confirm, then removes the endpoint. Nothing will be sent to it again. This cannot be undone.

What is sent

Each change is sent as a POST with a JSON body:

{
  "id": "the id of the change",
  "type": "animals.animal.update",
  "api_version": "2026-09-10",
  "occurred_at": "2026-09-18T14:03:22.118Z",
  "organization": { "slug": "contoso", "name": "Contoso Animal Rescue" },
  "data": {
    "module": "animals",
    "entity_type": "animal",
    "entity_id": "the id of the record",
    "action": "update",
    "before": { "the record before the change": "..." },
    "after": { "the record after the change": "..." },
    "diff": { "name": { "from": "Max", "to": "Maxwell" } }
  },
  "actor": { "type": "user", "id": "the id of the person who made the change" }
}

Key	What it holds
`id`	The change. It is the same on every try of the same change, so use it to ignore a message you have already handled.
`type`	The workspace, the kind of record and the action, joined with dots, such as `people.person.create` or `animals.animal.state_change`. A test message is `ping`.
`api_version`	The shape of this body.
`organization`	Your organization: `slug`, the first part of your RescueConsole address, and `name`.
`data.action`	`create`, `update`, `delete` or `state_change`.
`data.before`, `data.after`	The whole record before and after the change. `before` is null for a create.
`data.diff`	For an update, each field that changed, with `from` and `to`.
`actor`	Who made the change.

A test message has type set to ping, and data.after holds a message saying the endpoint works. Every message also carries these headers:

Header	What it holds
`X-RescueConsole-Signature`	The signature, below.
`X-RescueConsole-Event`	The same as `type`.
`X-RescueConsole-Delivery`	An id for this one try.
`User-Agent`	`RescueConsole-Webhooks/1`

Checking the signature

The X-RescueConsole-Signature header looks like t=1789740202,v1=5f0c…, where t is the time the message was signed, in seconds since 1970, and v1 is the signature. It is the same scheme Stripe uses for its webhooks. To check it:

Split the header on commas, and each part on its first =. Take t, and every v1.
Refuse the message if t is more than 300 seconds (five minutes) from your own clock.
Work out the HMAC-SHA256 of t, a full stop, and the body exactly as it arrived, using the whole signing secret (with whsec_) as the key. Write the result as lower-case hex.
Accept the message if it equals a v1. Compare in constant time.

Use the body as it arrived, before any parsing: parsing and writing JSON again changes the bytes and the signature will not match. In Node.js:

const crypto = require('crypto');

function verifyRescueConsole(rawBody, header, secret) {
  if (!header) return false;
  let t = NaN;
  const signatures = [];
  for (const part of header.split(',')) {
    const eq = part.indexOf('=');
    if (eq === -1) continue;
    const key = part.slice(0, eq).trim();
    const value = part.slice(eq + 1).trim();
    if (key === 't') t = Number(value);
    else if (key === 'v1') signatures.push(value);
  }
  if (!Number.isFinite(t) || signatures.length === 0) return false;
  if (Math.abs(Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000) - t) > 300) return false;
  const expected = crypto
    .createHmac('sha256', secret)
    .update(`${t}.${rawBody}`)
    .digest('hex');
  return signatures.some((s) =>
    s.length === expected.length &&
    crypto.timingSafeEqual(Buffer.from(s), Buffer.from(expected)));
}

Deliveries and retries

A delivery counts as delivered when your endpoint answers with a 2xx status within 10 seconds. Anything else fails: a redirect is not followed, a 4xx or 5xx is recorded with its code, and no answer is recorded as No response within 10 seconds. A failed delivery is tried again up to five more times, waiting longer each time: about a minute, then about two, four, eight and sixteen minutes. An endpoint that has already taken a change is not sent it again when a try is repeated for another endpoint’s sake. After 20 failed deliveries in a row, the endpoint is switched off and the reason is written under it: Switched off after 20 failed deliveries in a row. The last was: and the last error. Nothing more is sent to it until you fix the other end and press Switch on, which also clears the count.

Recent deliveries

Press Recent deliveries under an endpoint to see its last 50 deliveries, newest first.

Column	What it shows
When	When the delivery was made.
Event	The message’s `type`.
Result	Delivered with the status code, or the reason it failed.
Took	How long your endpoint took to answer.

Press Hide recent deliveries to fold it away.

Settings

Organization

Team and volunteers

Animal management

Finance and adoption

Operations and forms

Email

Data and customization

Advanced and security

Integrations

Your account

Adding an endpoint

The signing secret

Each endpoint

What is sent

Checking the signature

Deliveries and retries

Recent deliveries

​Adding an endpoint

​The signing secret

​Each endpoint

​What is sent

​Checking the signature

​Deliveries and retries

​Recent deliveries

Adding an endpoint

The signing secret

Each endpoint

What is sent

Checking the signature

Deliveries and retries

Recent deliveries