Workflows / Github / pull_request_review

Github pull_request_review Event Notification to Slack & Email

Learn how to listen to the pull_request_review webhook event from Github to trigger a notification workflow in MagicBell.

Event payload

Sample payload for the pull_request_review event.

{
  "action": "submitted",
  "organization": {
    "avatar_url": "https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/111111",
    "description": "Building great software",
    "id": 111111,
    "login": "acme"
  },
  "pull_request": {
    "base": {
      "label": "acme:main",
      "ref": "main",
      "sha": "789xyz012abc345def678901234567890xyz012"
    },
    "body": "This PR implements OAuth2 authentication for the API.",
    "created_at": "2025-01-15T14:00:00Z",
    "draft": false,
    "head": {
      "label": "acme:feature/oauth2-auth",
      "ref": "feature/oauth2-auth",
      "sha": "abc123def456789012345678901234567890abcd"
    },
    "html_url": "https://github.com/acme/project/pull/123",
    "id": 1234567890,
    "locked": false,
    "merged": false,
    "node_id": "PR_kwDOABC123",
    "number": 123,
    "state": "open",
    "title": "Add new authentication feature",
    "updated_at": "2025-01-15T23:00:00Z",
    "user": {
      "avatar_url": "https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/234567",
      "id": 234567,
      "login": "john-dev",
      "type": "User"
    }
  },
  "repository": {
    "default_branch": "main",
    "full_name": "acme/project",
    "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"
  },
  "review": {
    "author_association": "MEMBER",
    "body": "Great work! A few minor suggestions but overall looks good.",
    "commit_id": "abc123def456789012345678901234567890abcd",
    "html_url": "https://github.com/acme/project/pull/123#pullrequestreview-123456789",
    "id": 123456789,
    "node_id": "PRR_kwDOABC123",
    "pull_request_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/acme/project/pulls/123",
    "state": "approved",
    "submitted_at": "2025-01-15T23:00:00Z",
    "user": {
      "avatar_url": "https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/345678",
      "html_url": "https://github.com/senior-dev",
      "id": 345678,
      "login": "senior-dev",
      "node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjM0NTY3OA==",
      "type": "User"
    }
  },
  "sender": {
    "avatar_url": "https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/345678",
    "html_url": "https://github.com/senior-dev",
    "id": 345678,
    "login": "senior-dev",
    "node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjM0NTY3OA==",
    "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 pull_request_review 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 pull_request_review event:

integration.github.pull_request_review

Filter 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 submitted action:

"if": "payload.action == 'submitted'"

Example workflow

Notify PR authors when their pull request is reviewed.

{
  "key": "integration.github.pull_request_review.submitted",
  "steps": [
    {
      "command": "broadcast",
      "input": {
        "action_url": "{{payload.review.html_url}}",
        "content": "{{payload.sender.login}} {{payload.review.state}} your PR: {{payload.pull_request.title}}. {{payload.review.body}}",
        "overrides": {
          "providers": {
            "email": {},
            "slack": {}
          }
        },
        "recipients": [
          {
            "external_id": "{{payload.pull_request.user.login}}"
          }
        ],
        "title": "PR #{{payload.pull_request.number}} {{payload.review.state}}"
      }
    }
  ]
}

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.pull_request_review.submitted","steps":[{"command":"broadcast","input":{"action_url":"{{payload.review.html_url}}","content":"{{payload.sender.login}} {{payload.review.state}} your PR: {{payload.pull_request.title}}. {{payload.review.body}}","overrides":{"providers":{"email":{},"slack":{}}},"recipients":[{"external_id":"{{payload.pull_request.user.login}}"}],"title":"PR #{{payload.pull_request.number}} {{payload.review.state}}"}}]}'

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=pull_request_review \
  --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.pull_request_review.submitted

3. 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}

Other pull notification workflows

pull_request

Notify reviewers when a new pull request is opened. Notify the team lead if the PR has more than 500 lines changed.

pull_request_review_comment

Notify PR authors when reviewers leave line comments.

pull_request_review_thread

Notify PR authors when review threads are resolved.

pull_request_target

Handle pull requests from forks that trigger workflows in the target repository.

View all Github workflows →