HCP Packer webhooks now generally available

Today we are excited to announce the general availability of HCP Packer’s webhooks, first introduced at HashiConf in October 2023, which let users notify external systems about specific image events using automation. HCP Packer is a powerful tool that provides image lifecycle management at scale across any cloud and on-premises environment. The addition of webhooks helps organizations further streamline and secure image-related workflows across their multi-cloud infrastructure estate.

Previously, when a user completed specific actions in HCP Packer, they then needed to manually orchestrate various external workflows to achieve consistency across their infrastructure. For example, if a user revoked an artifact version, they would need to delete the image in the cloud provider and communicate this update to the appropriate team members. These manual steps added further complexity to image management workflows and opened organizations to security risks caused by human errors.

»Webhooks for HCP Packer

A webhook is a lightweight, event-driven communication that allows two applications to send data to one another as soon as a specific event occurs. With the introduction of webhooks for HCP Packer, users can now implement automation when interacting with the HashiCorp Cloud Platform (HCP) for image lifecycle events such as:

• Creation, completion, and deletion
• Revocation and restoration
• Scheduling and canceling a scheduled revocation
• Assignment to a channel

These automation workflows can be set up and edited directly in HCP:

Example workflows include initiating functional tests via HashiCorp Terraform Cloud after publishing a new image version, deleting the image or template in the cloud provider when the corresponding artifact version is deleted, and sending notifications to stakeholders when these events occur.

»Webhook benefits

Webhooks bring two key benefits to HCP Packer:

• Workflow automation: Webhooks let you automate processes triggered by specific events to reduce manual effort and increase velocity when integrating with existing external pipelines and Terraform Cloud.
• Enhanced security: Through automation, organizations can mitigate the risk of human errors such as missed notifications and forgotten image management tasks that could lead to outdated and insecure images being left deployed.

»Summary and resources

To learn more about using webhooks for HCP Packer, please refer to the documentation and demo video:

• Create and manage HCP Packer webhooks
• HCP Packer webhook events

Get started with HCP Packer for free to track and manage artifacts across all your cloud environments.