---
title: "Getting Started | WebhookRelay"
meta:
  "og:description": "What is Webhook Relay and how you can use it."
  "og:title": "Getting Started"
  description: "What is Webhook Relay and how you can use it."
---

![Stripes](https://webhookrelay.com/docs/images/stripes.svg)

Documentation

**Fundamentals**

# **Getting Started**

What is Webhook Relay and how you can use it.

## [What is Webhook Relay?](#what-is-webhook-relay)

Webhook Relay is a secure tunneling solution that provides:

- [Webhook Forwarding](#Webhook-Forwarding) - secure, unidirectional by default with optional request/response transformation.
- [Bidirectional Tunnelling](#Tunnels) - fast tunnels for direct access to any HTTP service. This is ideal for accessing internal APIs and demoing websites.

Check out our dashboard's [home page](https://my.webhookrelay.com/) to get started quickly.

## [Use Cases](#use-cases)

Popular use cases:

- Receive Stripe, Shopify, GitHub and other webhooks on your local machine while developing your application.
- Allow remote clients to connect to your backend, for example AWS EC2 instances communicating with your MacBook Pro.
- Forward a single webhook to multiple destinations, for example Slack and GCP PubSub.
- Transform webhooks, for example Docker push webhook into a Slack message.
- Demo your website to clients or customers.
- Access IoT devices and sensors remotely.

## [Webhook Forwarding](#webhook-forwarding)

Webhook forwarding is by default a uni-directional ("one way") way to send webhooks to other internal and public destinations.

![Webhook Relay forwarding](https://webhookrelay.com/docs/images/generic/forwarding.png)

Key facts:

- Unidirectional by default, but you can enable it to wait for the response.
- Single received webhook can be forwarded to multiple destinations.
- You can use **Functions** to execute custom code when a webhook is received, for example to filter or modify requests.

Use webhook forwarding when:

- Your requirement is primarily "_fire and forget_".
- You need to forward webhooks to internal destinations ([quick start](https://my.webhookrelay.com/new-internal-destination)).
- You need to forward a single webhook to multiple destinations ([quick start](https://my.webhookrelay.com/new-public-destination)).
- You need to transform webhook, for example Docker push webhook into a Slack message ([see examples](https://webhookrelay.com/docs/docs/webhooks/functions)).

## [Inputs](#inputs)

**Inputs** represent your public endpoints. These are the unique [URLs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/URL) for instance, `https://xyz.hooks.webhookrelay.com`. Each **input** have several configuration options:

- Whitelabel domain name (configurable in all paid plans).
- Static response code, headers and body.
- Dynamic response coming from any destination (must respond within 10 seconds).
- Each input can have an attached Function ([examples](https://webhookrelay.com/docs/docs/webhooks/functions)) which can modify response and request.

## [Outputs](#outputs)

**Outputs** define your destination, where webhooks will be sent. These destinations can either be an HTTP server running on your local machine ([http://localhost:8080](http://localhost:8080)) or a public server such as [https://example.com](https://example.com).

Main options for output configuration:

- Destination (where to forward).
- Path lock - whether to dynamically append URL paths (_xyz.hooks.webhookrelay.com/foo/bar_ -> _localhost:8080/foo/bar_)
- Attached [function](https://webhookrelay.com/docs/docs/webhooks/functions) to execute on a webhook.

## [Buckets](#buckets)

[Buckets](https://my.webhookrelay.com/buckets) are a grouping mechanism in Webhook Relay for **Inputs** and **Outputs**. You can also enable certain settings such as authentication and large webhook support (requests up to 50MB).

## [Tunnels](#tunnels)

Tunnels fully expose your local HTTP services to the internet. This is ideal for accessing internal APIs and demoing websites:

![Webhook Relay tunnels](https://webhookrelay.com/docs/images/generic/tunnels.png)

You can create, view and manage your tunnels here: [https://my.webhookrelay.com/tunnels](https://my.webhookrelay.com/tunnels) or check out the [quick start](https://my.webhookrelay.com/new-tunnel).

## [Access tokens](#access-tokens)

Access tokens are used to authenticate Webhook Relay agents and any other API requests. You can provision a key and secret pair here: [https://my.webhookrelay.com/tokens](https://my.webhookrelay.com/tokens).

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