---
type: concept
title: "Webhook-Driven Agents"
description: "Triggering agents from external events via webhooks so they run reactively as part of automated workflows rather than only through direct chat."
tags: [webhooks, event-triggered, automation, integrations]
videos: [the-most-profitable-ai-niche-no-one-is-talking-about]
created: 2026-07-21
updated: 2026-07-21
---

# Webhook-Driven Agents

A webhook-driven agent runs reactively: instead of a human opening a chat window, an external system fires an HTTP request at the agent's endpoint the moment something happens, and the agent handles it as part of an automated flow. In Cole's SMS-automation example the trigger is wired to message events on the platform itself: "anytime that there is an inbound message which is an SMS message or an outbound SMS message I just have these two things ticked here it'll send a request to this endpoint." [0:06:33] The agent is not waiting to be talked to; it is subscribed to events.

The flow is event-to-endpoint: the source platform holds a webhook URL and posts to it whenever the watched event occurs. As Cole puts it for the GoHighLevel integration, "whenever there's a text message that comes through in a go high level account it is going to hit this endpoint right here." [0:08:08] That inbound request carries the event payload, the agent reasons over it, and the response flows back into the automation, replying to the text, updating a record, or kicking off the next step.

This is what turns an agent from a demo into a piece of infrastructure. Chat is one entry point; webhooks let the same agent plug into any platform that can emit an event, which is what makes agents deliverable as a service inside a client's existing tools. It is the reactive, server-side counterpart to the request/response side of the webhook tool pattern: there, a webhook is how a frontend calls an agent on demand; here, a webhook is how an external system pushes work to the agent unprompted.

## Builds on

- [AI Agent Business Niches](./ai-agent-business-niches.md)
- [Extending a Platform via API + Marketplace](./extend-the-platform.md)

## Related

- [Webhook Tool Pattern](./webhook-tool-pattern.md)
- [No-Code Automation](./no-code-automation.md)
- [Agent as an API Endpoint](./agent-as-api-endpoint.md)
- [Frontend-Agnostic Agents](./frontend-agnostic-agent.md)

## Tools

- [GoHighLevel](../entities/tools/gohighlevel.md)

## Sources

- [The MOST Profitable AI Niche NO ONE is Talking About](../sources/the-most-profitable-ai-niche-no-one-is-talking-about.md) - "[0:06:33] anytime that there is an inbound message which is an SMS message or an outbound SMS message I just have these two things ticked here it'll send a request to this endpoint"
- [The MOST Profitable AI Niche NO ONE is Talking About](../sources/the-most-profitable-ai-niche-no-one-is-talking-about.md) - "[0:08:08] whenever there's a text message that comes through in a go high level account it is going to hit this endpoint right here"
