Getting notified: webhooks and Automations
How Plytix notifies you about changes today, and what's changing as the Webhooks project develops.
Plytix has two separate features for reacting to change: channel-processing webhooks, which notify you when an export finishes, and Automations, which applies rules to your product data as it changes. Neither is driven through the public API today. This page explains what each one does and where the API fits in now.
What it is
Channel webhooks send a message to a URL you choose when a channel finishes processing, so you can trigger a next step (updating a downstream system, posting to Slack, kicking off a Zapier or Make workflow) without polling. Automations are if/then rules that run inside Plytix itself: when a product matches a condition, Automations changes or fills in data automatically, for example setting a default Brand value when one is missing.
These are unrelated features that happen to both live under the umbrella of "getting notified about change." Webhooks tell you something happened. Automations changes data based on something happening. Don't conflate the two.
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Plytix's product team has described an active "Webhooks project" aimed at a broader, event-driven alternative to polling for changes, with Automations described as its planned entry point. This is roadmap language, not a description of anything currently available. Treat any mention of automations triggering webhooks as future, not current, until Plytix confirms it has shipped.
How it works today
Channel webhooks
Set up entirely in the dashboard, under a channel's settings. A basic webhook fires a fixed POST request with a fixed JSON payload (channel name, processing status, channel URL, feed URL, and the number of products processed) whenever that channel finishes processing. An advanced version of the same feature lets you customize the request URL, headers, and body.
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The channel resource's create schema includes a webhook field (webhook_url, webhook_headers, webhook_body) that appears to correspond to the dashboard's advanced webhook settings. This project confirmed the field exists on the live API but didn't independently confirm that setting it through the API actually registers a working webhook. Verify this with a real test before building an integration around it.
Automations
Set up entirely in the dashboard, from the Automations section. You define a condition (for example, "Brand is empty and Category is Electronics") and an action (for example, "set Brand to TechCorp"). Plytix evaluates and applies these rules on its own as product data changes; there's no equivalent endpoint to create, read, or trigger an Automation through the API today.
Where this leaves an integration today
If your integration needs to react to a channel finishing, use a dashboard-configured webhook, either basic or advanced, as described above. If your integration needs to react to a product changing for any other reason, polling with the incremental-sync pattern from "Syncing Your ERP with Plytix" is the confirmed working approach until the Webhooks project ships something broader.