File Upload Webhooksfor Automated Workflows
Stop writing Cron jobs that wake up every 60 seconds to check a bucket. Rilavek fires a signed webhook as soon as a file upload completes — giving you near-real-time triggers for ETL, AI pipelines, and business workflows.
From file upload to your API in three steps
Authenticated Source
A partner or application uploads via SFTP, FTP, or HTTP using their unique Sender identity. No shared passwords.
Ingest & Store
Rilavek receives the file and streams it directly to your configured S3, GCS, or Azure destination.
Trigger Event
We POST a signed JSON payload to your webhook endpoint the moment the transfer completes. No polling required.
What changes when you move the trigger to the transfer layer
Polling is a best-effort guess that something changed. A signed webhook is a direct event from the system that handled the upload.
| Question | Rilavek WebhooksTransfer Layer | Bucket PollingScheduled Check |
|---|---|---|
| When does processing start? | As soon as transfer completion is confirmed | After the next scheduled check |
| Do you pay for idle checks? | No idle event traffic | Yes, continuous LIST or metadata checks |
| Can you verify the source? | Yes, signed request body | You infer based on bucket state |
| Does it work across source protocols? | Yes, SFTP / FTP / FTPS / HTTP | Only after objects already exist in storage |
| What if nothing new arrived? | No webhook sent | Your job still wakes up and checks |
Why poll when you can push?
The standard pattern for file-triggered workflows is running a scheduled job every minute to list a bucket and compare against a known state. It is fragile, expensive, and adds a full polling interval of latency to every pipeline.
When an invoice, a sensor reading, or a batch export lands in your bucket, you want your downstream system to react immediately — not after the next cron tick. Rilavek fires a webhook at the transfer layer when the transfer completes, cutting out the usual polling delay.
The webhook payload
Every event carries standardized metadata. Parse it with two lines of code in any language.
// POST https://your-api.com/webhooks/ingest
// Header: X-Rilavek-Signature: sha256=...
{
"event": "file.status_changed",
"timestamp": "2026-03-03T08:00:00Z",
"data": {
"pipe_id": "pipe_123",
"file_id": "file_456",
"filename": "invoice_99.pdf",
"status": "transferred",
"size": 10240,
"sender": "client_abc"
}
}
The Polling Tax
A polling loop running every 60 seconds on a bucket with 1,000 daily uploads makes 1,440 unnecessary LIST API calls for every 1 real event. That is a 1440:1 waste ratio before you even start processing. With Rilavek webhooks, the ratio is 1:1.
Verify the Signature
Every webhook request includes an X-Rilavek-Signature header — an HMAC-SHA256 of the raw request body signed with your secret. Always verify it before processing. Do not rely on the source IP alone.
Save compute costs. React to files the moment they arrive, not after the next cron tick.
Know exactly who sent what. Usage is tracked per Sender for billing and auditing.
Receive standardized metadata: Pipe ID, File ID, Name, Size, Status, and Sender.
Verify every request comes from Rilavek using SHA256 signatures. No spoofing.
Real integrations teams wire up first
The event is just HTTPS, which means it fits anywhere your workflow already starts.
Zapier / Make
Notify Slack, create tickets, update CRMs, or route approvals without writing custom backend glue.
n8n / Workflows
Branch on filename patterns, sender identity, or upload status and fan events into longer automation chains.
ETL / Warehouses
Kick off dbt jobs, ingestion Lambdas, or warehouse loads the moment a partner feed lands.
AI Pipelines
Trigger OCR, summarization, embedding jobs, or agent workflows as soon as files arrive in storage.
Everything you need to build file-triggered automations
These are the features teams need the moment they outgrow a basic Cron job.
Fast Event Delivery
Webhooks fire at the transfer layer as soon as a transfer completes, so your API can react without waiting for the next polling cycle.
Sender Isolation
Assign a unique identity to every partner, vendor, or application. Revoke access instantly without rotating shared credentials.
Structured Metadata
Every event includes Pipe ID, File ID, filename, size, sender, and transfer status. No custom parsing required.
Any Language
Your webhook endpoint is plain HTTPS. Handle it in Python, Node.js, Go, or any HTTP server. No SDK required.
Automatic Retries
If your endpoint is temporarily unavailable, we retry with exponential backoff. No events are silently dropped.
Multi-Protocol Sources
Trigger from files uploaded via SFTP, FTP, FTPS, or HTTP. One webhook config covers every inbound protocol.
Built for real webhook consumers, not demo endpoints
The hard part is not sending JSON. It is making sure retries, verification, and downstream processing stay sane in production.
Signed
Every request carries an HMAC signature so your application can verify authenticity before doing work.
Retried
Temporary endpoint failures do not silently drop events. Delivery is retried with backoff.
Standardized
The payload shape stays consistent across source protocols, which keeps your handlers simpler.
Queue Friendly
Respond fast, enqueue work, and process heavy jobs asynchronously without blocking the webhook response.
Common questions
How fast is the webhook delivery after a file upload?
Webhooks fire at the transport layer as soon as the file transfer is confirmed complete. In practice, delivery timing depends on file size, destination confirmation, and your endpoint, but it is typically much faster than a scheduled polling loop.
What happens if my webhook endpoint is down?
We retry with exponential backoff over a configurable window. You can also view failed delivery attempts and manually replay events from the dashboard.
Can I filter webhooks by sender or file type?
Yes. You can configure per-Pipe event filters so only specific senders or file patterns trigger your endpoint. This keeps your backend from receiving irrelevant noise.
How do I verify a webhook is actually from Rilavek?
Each request includes an X-Rilavek-Signature header — an HMAC-SHA256 digest of the raw body using your shared secret. Verify it server-side before processing any payload.
Can I connect webhooks to Zapier or Make without writing code?
Yes. Any no-code automation platform that accepts inbound HTTP webhooks works out of the box. Point your Rilavek webhook URL at Zapier, Make, or n8n and build the automation from there.
Stop polling. Start reacting.
A working webhook pipeline on top of your file ingestion in minutes. Read the docs or start for free.
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