Github discussion Event Notification to Slack & Email
Learn how to listen to the discussion webhook event from Github to trigger a notification workflow in MagicBell.
Event payload
Sample payload for the discussion event.
{
"action": "created",
"discussion": {
"author_association": "NONE",
"body": "It would be great to have a dark mode option for the dashboard. Many users prefer dark interfaces for reduced eye strain.\n\n## Use Case\nUsers who work late at night or in low-light environments would benefit from this feature.\n\n## Proposed Solution\nAdd a theme toggle in the settings panel.",
"category": {
"description": "Share ideas for new features",
"emoji": "💡",
"id": 111,
"is_answerable": false,
"name": "Ideas",
"node_id": "DIC_kwDOABC123",
"slug": "ideas"
},
"comments": 0,
"created_at": "2025-01-15T19:00:00Z",
"html_url": "https://github.com/acme/project/discussions/15",
"id": 123456789,
"locked": false,
"node_id": "D_kwDOABC123",
"number": 15,
"reactions": {
"+1": 0,
"-1": 0,
"confused": 0,
"eyes": 0,
"heart": 0,
"hooray": 0,
"laugh": 0,
"rocket": 0,
"total_count": 0,
"url": "https://api.github.com/repos/acme/project/discussions/15/reactions"
},
"state": "open",
"title": "Feature Request: Add dark mode support",
"updated_at": "2025-01-15T19:00:00Z",
"user": {
"avatar_url": "https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/567890",
"html_url": "https://github.com/community-member",
"id": 567890,
"login": "community-member",
"node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjU2Nzg5MA==",
"type": "User"
}
},
"organization": {
"avatar_url": "https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/111111",
"description": "Building great software",
"id": 111111,
"login": "acme"
},
"repository": {
"default_branch": "main",
"full_name": "acme/project",
"has_discussions": true,
"html_url": "https://github.com/acme/project",
"id": 987654321,
"name": "project",
"node_id": "MDEwOlJlcG9zaXRvcnk5ODc2NTQzMjE=",
"owner": {
"avatar_url": "https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/111111",
"html_url": "https://github.com/acme",
"id": 111111,
"login": "acme",
"type": "Organization"
},
"private": false,
"visibility": "public"
},
"sender": {
"avatar_url": "https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/567890",
"html_url": "https://github.com/community-member",
"id": 567890,
"login": "community-member",
"node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjU2Nzg5MA==",
"type": "User"
}
}Connect Github to MagicBell to receive events and trigger workflows. This guide uses the MagicBell CLI.
Add the Github integration
Save your Github webhook signing secret in MagicBell. See GitHub webhooks.
magicbell integration save_github \
--data '{"webhook_signing_secret":"your_secret_here"}'Copy the ID from the response and use it to build your webhook URL:
https://api.magicbell.com/v2/integrations/github/webhooks/incoming/{id}Setup the webhook
- Setup a webhook in Github with the URL from the last step.
- Select the discussion event.
- If you already have a webhook configured, make sure it includes this event.
Add a workflow
Create a workflow that triggers automatically when Github sends this event. Use liquid templates to access fields in your workflow.
Workflow key
Use this key to trigger the workflow when Github sends a discussion event:
integration.github.discussionFilter by action: GitHub sends the event type in the header and the action in the payload body. Use an if condition to filter for the created action:
"if": "payload.action == 'created'"Example workflow
Notify maintainers when new discussions are created. Keep the team informed about community feedback.
{
"key": "integration.github.discussion.created",
"steps": [
{
"command": "broadcast",
"input": {
"action_url": "{{payload.discussion.html_url}}",
"content": "{{payload.sender.login}} started a {{payload.discussion.category.name}} discussion in {{payload.repository.full_name}}.",
"overrides": {
"providers": {
"slack": {}
}
},
"recipients": [
{
"external_id": "maintainers"
}
],
"title": "New discussion: {{payload.discussion.title}}"
}
}
]
}Save with the CLI
Use the MagicBell CLI to save this workflow to your project. You can also use the Workflows API endpoint instead.
magicbell workflow save \
--data '{"key":"integration.github.discussion.created","steps":[{"command":"broadcast","input":{"action_url":"{{payload.discussion.html_url}}","content":"{{payload.sender.login}} started a {{payload.discussion.category.name}} discussion in {{payload.repository.full_name}}.","overrides":{"providers":{"slack":{}}},"recipients":[{"external_id":"maintainers"}],"title":"New discussion: {{payload.discussion.title}}"}}]}'Test the workflow
Use the Github CLI to trigger test events and verify your workflow executes correctly.
1. Trigger a test event
Use the GitHub CLI to forward webhook events from your repository to MagicBell:
gh webhook forward \
--events=discussion \
--url=https://api.magicbell.com/v2/integrations/github/webhooks/incoming/{id}2. Verify the workflow ran
Check that MagicBell received the event and executed the workflow:
magicbell workflow list_runs --workflow_key integration.github.discussion.created3. Debug issues
If the workflow failed or you need more details, fetch the run to see step-by-step execution:
magicbell workflow fetch_run --run_id {run_id}