Zendesk webhook payload example (ticket.created)

Zendesk · event: zen:event-type:ticket.created · content type: application/json

This is a representative sample — fake IDs, real structure. To see a payload with your data, point the provider at a capture URL (button below).

Headers

content-type: application/json
x-zendesk-account-id: 9834021
x-zendesk-webhook-id: 01F1KRFQ6BG29CNWFR60NK5FNY
x-zendesk-webhook-invocation-id: 8350205582
x-zendesk-webhook-signature: Dvp/wwSV2zdkL4q1NOvdohPaR8iFwnV36MU60vLrUT0=
x-zendesk-webhook-signature-timestamp: 2026-08-30T14:12:08Z

Body

{
  "account_id": 9834021,
  "detail": {
    "actor_id": "8447388090494",
    "assignee_id": "8447388090494",
    "brand_id": "8447346621310",
    "created_at": "2026-08-30T14:12:07Z",
    "custom_status": "8447320465790",
    "description": "Customer reports the export button does nothing on Safari.",
    "external_id": null,
    "form_id": "8646151517822",
    "group_id": "8447320466430",
    "id": "5158",
    "is_public": true,
    "organization_id": "8447346622462",
    "priority": "LOW",
    "requester_id": "8659316086014",
    "status": "OPEN",
    "subject": "Export button does nothing",
    "submitter_id": "8659316086014",
    "tags": [
      "export",
      "safari"
    ],
    "type": "TASK",
    "updated_at": "2026-08-30T14:12:07Z",
    "via": {
      "channel": "web_form"
    }
  },
  "event": {
    "meta": {
      "sequence": {
        "id": 3.931393038363336e+25,
        "position": 1
      }
    }
  },
  "id": "cbe4028c-7239-495d-b020-f22348516046",
  "subject": "zen:ticket:5158",
  "time": "2026-08-30T14:12:07.672717030Z",
  "type": "zen:event-type:ticket.created",
  "zendesk_event_version": "2022-11-06"
}

Things that bite people

• This example's signature actually verifies — and with a secret you already have: X-Zendesk-Webhook-Signature is base64 HMAC-SHA256 over timestamp + body, and this sample signs with dGhpc19zZWNyZXRfaXNfZm9yX3Rlc3Rpbmdfb25seQ== — Zendesk's documented static test secret (base64 for "this_secret_is_for_testing_only"). Try it in the signature debugger (Zendesk provider) or set the Zendesk scheme on a capture bin for live ✓/✗ badges.
• The static-secret trap: test deliveries fired while you're still creating a webhook sign with that static secret — the real per-webhook signing secret only exists after creation (Admin Center → webhook → Reveal secret, or the Show Webhook Signing Secret API). Verification code that works during setup then fails in production usually pinned the test secret.
• The timestamp is ISO-8601, not unix — x-zendesk-webhook-signature-timestamp: 2026-08-30T14:12:08Z is concatenated with the body as that string, no separator. And the secret is used verbatim: Zendesk's own Node sample feeds the base64-looking string straight into the HMAC without decoding it.
• Retries are unusually narrow: failed invocations are retried up to 3× only on 409; 429/503 retry only when a retry-after header under 60s is present; timeouts (12s limit) retry up to 5×. Any other 4xx/5xx = dropped, no retry — but the webhook is never deactivated for failures. Instead a circuit breaker trips when 70% of requests error (or 1,000+ errors) within 5 minutes, and events during the trip may never be delivered. Delivery is best-effort at-least-once: dedupe on x-zendesk-webhook-invocation-id or the event id.
• Only webhooks subscribed to Zendesk events (like this one) always POST JSON you can't change. Webhooks wired to triggers/automations send whatever payload the admin typed — method and format included — so don't assume this envelope for trigger-fired hooks. GET/DELETE trigger webhooks sign with an empty-string body. A 7-day invocation log lives at GET /api/v2/webhooks/{id}/invocations.

Send it yourself

Reproduce this delivery against any endpoint (your handler, a bin, staging):

$ curl -X POST https://your-endpoint.example/hook \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  -H 'x-zendesk-account-id: 9834021' \
  -H 'x-zendesk-webhook-id: 01F1KRFQ6BG29CNWFR60NK5FNY' \
  -H 'x-zendesk-webhook-invocation-id: 8350205582' \
  -H 'x-zendesk-webhook-signature: Dvp/wwSV2zdkL4q1NOvdohPaR8iFwnV36MU60vLrUT0=' \
  -H 'x-zendesk-webhook-signature-timestamp: 2026-08-30T14:12:08Z' \
 -d '{
  "account_id": 9834021,
  "detail": {
    "actor_id": "8447388090494",
    "assignee_id": "8447388090494",
    "brand_id": "8447346621310",
    "created_at": "2026-08-30T14:12:07Z",
    "custom_status": "8447320465790",
    "description": "Customer reports the export button does nothing on Safari.",
    "external_id": null,
    "form_id": "8646151517822",
    "group_id": "8447320466430",
    "id": "5158",
    "is_public": true,
    "organization_id": "8447346622462",
    "priority": "LOW",
    "requester_id": "8659316086014",
    "status": "OPEN",
    "subject": "Export button does nothing",
    "submitter_id": "8659316086014",
    "tags": [
      "export",
      "safari"
    ],
    "type": "TASK",
    "updated_at": "2026-08-30T14:12:07Z",
    "via": {
      "channel": "web_form"
    }
  },
  "event": {
    "meta": {
      "sequence": {
        "id": 39313930383633353634323835,
        "position": 1
      }
    }
  },
  "id": "cbe4028c-7239-495d-b020-f22348516046",
  "subject": "zen:ticket:5158",
  "time": "2026-08-30T14:12:07.672717030Z",
  "type": "zen:event-type:ticket.created",
  "zendesk_event_version": "2022-11-06"
}'

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