github-webhook

A lightweight server that listens for GitHub Webhook events and executes commands when specific conditions are matched. Useful for automated deployments, CI triggers, and other GitHub-driven workflows.

Installation

npm install -g github-webhook

Quick Start

github-webhook \
  --port=9999 \
  --path=/webhook \
  --secret=mygithubsecret \
  --rule='push:ref == "refs/heads/master" && repository.name == "myrepo":./deploy.sh'

Then configure your GitHub repository's webhook settings to point to http://yourserver:9999/webhook with the matching secret.

Configuration

You can configure github-webhook via command-line arguments or a JSON config file (or both - command-line overrides the config file).

Command-line

github-webhook \
  --config=/etc/github-webhook.json \
  --port=9999 \
  --path=/webhook \
  --secret=mygithubsecret \
  --log=/var/log/webhook.log \
  --rule='push:ref == "refs/heads/master":./deploy.sh'

Config file

{
  "port": 9999,
  "path": "/webhook",
  "secret": "mygithubsecret",
  "log": "/var/log/webhook.log",
  "rules": [
    {
      "event": "push",
      "match": "ref == \"refs/heads/master\" && repository.full_name == \"myuser/myrepo\"",
      "exec": "/var/www/deploy.sh"
    }
  ]
}

Options

Option	Required	Description
port	Yes	Port to listen on (also respects PORT env var)
path	Yes	URL path to receive webhooks (e.g., /webhook)
secret	Yes	Webhook secret for payload verification (configure the same value in GitHub)
host	No	Bind to a specific host/IP address
log	No	Log file path, or stdout/stderr for console output
rules	No	Array of rules to match and execute (see below)

Rules

Rules define what commands to execute when specific webhook events are received.

Rule properties

Property	Description
event	GitHub event type to match (push, pull_request, issues, etc.). Use * to match all events. See GitHub Webhooks documentation for available events.
match	Expression to match against the webhook payload. Uses matchme syntax.
exec	Command to execute. A string runs via sh -c "...". An array executes directly (first element is the command, rest are arguments).

Command-line rule syntax

Rules can be specified on the command line as --rule 'event:match:exec':

--rule 'push:ref == "refs/heads/master":./deploy.sh'

Environment variables

Commands receive the entire webhook payload as environment variables with a gh_ prefix:

• gh_ref - The git ref (e.g., refs/heads/master)
• gh_branch - The branch name (extracted from ref for convenience)
• gh_repository_name - Repository name
• gh_repository_full_name - Full repository name (e.g., owner/repo)
• gh_sender_login - Username of the person who triggered the event
• ... and all other payload fields

Nested objects become underscore-separated (e.g., gh_repository_owner_login).

Example rules

Deploy on push to master:

{
  "event": "push",
  "match": "ref == \"refs/heads/master\" && repository.full_name == \"myuser/myrepo\"",
  "exec": "/var/www/deploy.sh"
}

Run tests on pull request:

{
  "event": "pull_request",
  "match": "action == \"opened\" || action == \"synchronize\"",
  "exec": ["./run-tests.sh", "--pr"]
}

Log all events:

{
  "event": "*",
  "match": "true",
  "exec": "echo \"Received $gh_event\" >> /var/log/webhooks.log"
}

Running as a Service

systemd (recommended)

Create /etc/systemd/system/github-webhook.service:

[Unit]
Description=GitHub Webhook Server
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=www-data
ExecStart=/usr/bin/github-webhook --config /etc/github-webhook.json
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Then enable and start:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable github-webhook
sudo systemctl start github-webhook
sudo systemctl status github-webhook

View logs:

sudo journalctl -u github-webhook -f

Running behind a reverse proxy

For production, run github-webhook behind nginx or another reverse proxy that handles TLS:

location /webhook {
    proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:9999;
    proxy_set_header Host $host;
    proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
}

Then configure github-webhook with --host=127.0.0.1 to only accept local connections.

Programmatic Usage

import webhook from 'github-webhook'

const server = webhook({
  port: 9999,
  path: '/webhook',
  secret: 'mygithubsecret',
  rules: [
    {
      event: 'push',
      match: 'ref == "refs/heads/master"',
      exec: './deploy.sh'
    }
  ]
})

server.listen(9999, () => {
  console.log('Webhook server listening on port 9999')
})

The function returns an http.Server instance with an attached webhookHandler for custom event handling:

server.webhookHandler.on('push', (event) => {
  console.log('Push event:', event.payload)
})

Debugging

Enable debug output with the DEBUG environment variable:

DEBUG=github-webhook:* github-webhook --config /etc/github-webhook.json

More Information

github-webhook is powered by github-webhook-handler.

License

github-webhook is Copyright (c) 2015 Rod Vagg and licensed under the MIT License. All rights not explicitly granted in the MIT License are reserved. See the included LICENSE.md file for more details.