AppFolio Webhooks & Events Skill

AppFolio Webhooks & Events

Overview

AppFolio Stack delivers real-time webhook notifications for property management lifecycle events including tenant onboarding, lease execution, rent payments, and maintenance workflows. Use these webhooks to sync AppFolio data with your CRM, accounting system, or custom property management dashboards without polling the API.

Webhook Registration

const response = await fetch("https://api.appfolio.com/v1/webhooks", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "Authorization": `Bearer ${process.env.APPFOLIO_API_KEY}`,
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    url: "https://yourapp.com/webhooks/appfolio",
    events: ["tenant.created", "work_order.updated", "payment.received", "lease.signed"],
    secret: process.env.APPFOLIO_WEBHOOK_SECRET,
  }),
});

Signature Verification

import crypto from "crypto";
import { Request, Response, NextFunction } from "express";

function verifyAppFolioSignature(req: Request, res: Response, next: NextFunction) {
  const signature = req.headers["x-appfolio-signature"] as string;
  const expected = crypto
    .createHmac("sha256", process.env.APPFOLIO_WEBHOOK_SECRET!)
    .update(req.body)
    .digest("hex");
  if (!crypto.timingSafeEqual(Buffer.from(signature), Buffer.from(expected))) {
    return res.status(401).json({ error: "Invalid signature" });
  }
  next();
}

Event Handler

import express from "express";
const app = express();

app.post("/webhooks/appfolio", express.raw({ type: "application/json" }), verifyAppFolioSignature, (req, res) => {
  const event = JSON.parse(req.body.toString());
  res.status(200).json({ received: true });

  switch (event.type) {
    case "tenant.created":
      syncTenantToCRM(event.data.tenant_id, event.data.property_id); break;
    case "work_order.updated":
      notifyMaintenanceTeam(event.data.work_order_id, event.data.status); break;
    case "payment.received":
      recordPayment(event.data.lease_id, event.data.amount_cents); break;
    case "lease.signed":
      activateLease(event.data.lease_id, event.data.move_in_date); break;
  }
});

Event Types

| Event | Payload Fields | Use Case | |-------|---------------|----------| | tenant.created | tenant_id, property_id, email | Sync new tenant to CRM | | work_order.updated | work_order_id, status, assigned_vendor | Dispatch or escalate maintenance | | payment.received | lease_id, amount_cents, payment_method | Update accounting ledger | | lease.signed | lease_id, move_in_date, term_months | Activate unit and send welcome | | lease.expired | lease_id, unit_id, vacate_date | Trigger renewal or re-listing |

Retry & Idempotency

const processed = new Set<string>();

async function handleIdempotent(event: { id: string; type: string; data: any }) {
  if (processed.has(event.id)) return;
  await routeEvent(event);
  processed.add(event.id);
  if (processed.size > 10_000) {
    const entries = Array.from(processed);
    entries.slice(0, entries.length - 10_000).forEach((id) => processed.delete(id));
  }
}

Error Handling

| Issue | Cause | Fix | |-------|-------|-----| | Signature mismatch | Wrong secret or parsed body | Use express.raw() for verification | | Duplicate events | AppFolio retry on timeout | Track event IDs for idempotency | | Missing property_id | Event from archived property | Check property status before processing | | 5xx from handler | Downstream service unavailable | Return 200 immediately, process async |

Resources

AppFolio Stack APIs

Next Steps

See appfolio-security-basics.

Agent Skills: AppFolio Webhooks & Events

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