Working with external APIs

Connect Mechanic to external REST and JSON APIs — load data via HTTP requests, receive data via webhooks, and integrate Shopify with any service.

Mechanic tasks can interact with any HTTP-accessible service. Use the HTTP action to call REST APIs, send webhooks, or post data to external systems. Use Mechanic's incoming webhooks to receive data from external services and trigger tasks. This makes Mechanic suitable for integration workflows that go beyond Shopify — syncing data with ERPs, CRMs, fulfillment services, or any system with an API.

For a higher-level overview of connecting Mechanic to third-party services — including built-in integrations and authentication patterns — see Connecting third-party apps.

Loading data into Mechanic

Mechanic is an event-driven platform. This means that all data used by Mechanic needs to arrive in the form of an event. (The only exception here is Shopify itself: see Interacting with Shopify).

To create events using third-party data, use one of these techniques:

• Use the HTTP action to request the data you require, subscribing to mechanic/actions/perform to actually use the downloaded data.

• Use Couchdrop's Shared Links feature with an external FTP server or other cloud storage provider, to make any file available via a secret URL. Then, use the HTTP action to request that data.

• Use Mechanic's webhooks to POST your data directly to Mechanic.

• Use inbound email to deliver your data to Mechanic, either in the message body or as an attachment. See Receiving email.

• If you only need to move files around, without actually using the file contents, use the Files action with the URL file generator to download external files to a temporary Mechanic URL.

Writing data to an external service

• Use the HTTP action, using standard HTTP requests, with options for authenticating with custom headers.

• Use the FTP action to upload data to third-party locations. Optionally, use a connecting service like Couchdrop to connect to another cloud storage provider (e.g. Dropbox, Google Drive, S3, etc).

• Use a cache endpoint to save your data to an unguessable URL, where an external service may download it.

Examples

• Task: Add new customers to GetResponse

• Task: Send an event to Klaviyo when a fulfillment is delayed

• Demonstration: Query external paginated API