webhook

Definition

A way for an application to send real-time data to other applications via HTTP callbacks. It's the polite way for services to say 'hey, something happened' instead of you constantly asking 'did something happen yet?'

Example Usage

Set up a webhook so our app gets notified immediately when a payment completes, instead of polling the API every five seconds.

Origin

Coined by Jeff Lindsay in 2007 as a 'hook' that works over the web, formed by analogy to programming hooks

Fun Fact

Webhooks are essentially the internet's way of implementing the observer pattern, turning the entire web into one giant event-driven system held together by JSON and hope.

Source: Web API design and integration patterns

Related Terms

Beginner

Open Source

Software whose source code is freely available for anyone to use, modify, and argue about on GitHub. It's built by volunteers, maintained by guilt, and funded by the desperate hope that someone will eventually click the "Sponsor" button.

💻 Tech / IT

Intermediate

virtualize

The tech world's equivalent of making imaginary friends real—creating software-based versions of physical hardware that exist only in the digital realm but work just as well (sometimes better). It's how one beefy server pretends to be twenty different computers, each blissfully unaware of its simulated existence. Basically, it's The Matrix for IT infrastructure, and yes, the red pill is more expensive.

💻 Tech / IT

Advanced

Edge Computing

Processing data closer to where it's generated instead of sending it to a faraway data center, because apparently the cloud wasn't edgy enough. It's like moving the kitchen closer to the dining table so your food doesn't get cold.

💻 Tech / IT

Beginner

technical grooming

The process of reviewing, refining, and preparing technical tasks before development begins—not to be confused with the other kind of grooming your HR department warns about. It's like mise en place for coding.

💻 Tech / IT

Advanced

compartmentalisation

The practice of dividing complex tasks, information, or emotions into separate mental boxes so you can pretend some problems don't exist while dealing with others. In software development, it's breaking code into modular libraries that don't talk to each other more than necessary—good architecture and good therapy. In espionage, it's ensuring no single person knows enough to spill all the secrets, because trust is for people who aren't running covert operations.

💻 Tech / IT

Beginner

Repository

A storage location for code, also known as the crime scene where developers commit their changes and occasionally their career-ending mistakes. Every repository has a README that was accurate once, briefly, in 2019.

💻 Tech / IT

Translate This Term

See “webhook” in Corporate Speak, Gen-Z Slang, Pirate Speak, and more.

Try the Translator

Share This Term

Post on X Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn

Discover a Term

Intermediate

gratuitous

Something given for free without expectation of payment or consideration, though in legal contexts it often implies some...