Single leads by webhook and email
Send leads one at a time into a trail's folder from a website form, Zapier or an enquiry email. The webhook address and secret, what to send, limits and plans.
By Operelio team · Updated October 20, 2026
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What a single lead is
A single lead is one person who arrives on their own: a webhook call from your website form or Zapier, or an email to the folder's address. It runs through the trail on its own, straight away, instead of waiting for a file. A list in a file runs as one job, as it always has.
Single leads reach HubSpot and Salesforce. Single leads can't be sent to Pipedrive yet: leads that arrive one at a time wait in Operelio, and lists still go to Pipedrive.
Set up the webhook
Each folder has its own webhook. Leads that arrive on it go to the trail that watches the folder.
Open the folder's settings
In Files, open the folder and click the Settings tab. The webhook is under Its webhook.
Copy the address
Click Copy beside the address. It ends in /api/webhooks/folders/ and the folder's id.
Make a secret
Click Make a secret, then copy it into your form tool straight away. Operelio shows a secret only once, when it is made. Only an admin can make one.
Send each lead
Your form or tool sends each lead as a POST to the address, with the secret in the Authorization header, as Bearer and then the secret.
To change the secret, click Get a new secret. The old one keeps working for 24 hours, so your forms don't break while you update them. If it leaked, click Stop the old secret now.
What to send
Send one lead per call, as one JSON object. Any field names work, and each field becomes a column. A field inside another, like address.city, becomes a column of that name. A list of values in one field is joined with semicolons. A call can be up to 64 KB.
A lead needs an email address or a name. One with neither is held, in case the form has changed.
A list of leads in one call is refused. Send a list as a file, by upload or email.
curl -X POST "https://<your webhook address>" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer <your secret>" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "Idempotency-Key: form-entry-5817" \
-d '{"name": "Maya Collins", "email": "maya@northgate.example"}'What the webhook answers
Operelio answers as soon as the lead is stored, before the trail runs it.
| Code | What it means |
|---|---|
| 202 | Stored. The answer carries the lead's id. |
| 400 | Not one JSON object with at least one field, a list, or an Idempotency-Key that isn't printable text up to 200 characters. |
| 401 | The address or secret isn't right. |
| 410 | The folder's workspace is closed and takes no more leads. |
| 413 | Over 64 KB. |
| 503 | Operelio couldn't store the lead just then. Send it again after the Retry-After seconds. |
Sending the same lead twice makes one lead. Give each call an Idempotency-Key header, and a second call with the same key within 7 days returns the first lead's id. Without the header, a call with exactly the same body counts as the same lead.
Leads by email
Each folder also has an email address, under Its email address in the folder's settings. Click Show address, then Copy. Forward enquiries to it, or have your form send its notification emails there.
An email with no spreadsheet or document attached becomes one lead. A form email, with lines like Name: Maya Collins, fills the matching columns: it needs at least two such lines, one of them a name or an email. Any other email becomes a lead with the sender's name and address, and its text in a Notes column. Automatic replies, newsletters, bulk mail and bounces are skipped.
An email with CSV, Excel, PDF or Word files attached runs those files as lists instead, up to 10 per email.
Who can send, in the folder's settings, limits which addresses the folder takes email from. Leave it empty to take email from anyone.
What the trail does with a lead
Each lead goes through the trail's cleaning steps, is scored by the Scorecard if the trail has one, is checked against your CRM and routed to an owner. Then it is sent, or waits on the Leads tab. Verify emails and Company Active Check run on files only, so a single lead's email address is never verified.
The trail must be switched on. Leads that arrive while it is off are kept and wait, and one that waits more than 24 hours for its first run is held until you press Retry.
Before a HubSpot or Salesforce trail sends single leads, an admin sets it up on the push tile: open What gets created, click Use these settings, then put the sandbox live. Leads that arrived before then wait in Held, and What gets created shows a Send the N leads button that sends them.
In a trail's first week, every lead waits on the Leads tab for your yes or no. After that, each lead follows the Scorecard and the routing rules.
When many leads arrive at once
Each folder runs up to 60 leads a minute and 1,000 an hour one at a time. Past that, leads are still taken, and gathered into one list job every 10 minutes. Nothing is turned away for the rate.
Plans and the lead allowance
Each plan includes single leads a month. Past the allowance, each lead counts as one job. If your jobs are used up too, new leads are kept and wait for you, never dropped. Settings, Plan and usage (Usage for members) shows how many are left.
| Free | Starter | Pro | Agency | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single leads a month | No | 1,000 | 5,000 | 20,000 shared across your workspaces |
Free has no folders and doesn't run trails on live leads. A workspace that moves down to Free keeps leads that arrive by webhook or email for 24 hours, and they go to your CRM if it moves up to Starter by then.
Frequently asked questions
Can I send a lead from Zapier or Make?
Yes. Use a webhook action that sends a POST with a JSON body, the folder's webhook address, and the Authorization header with your secret.
Does a lead go to my CRM as soon as it arrives?
It runs as soon as it arrives, but it can wait: every lead waits for a yes or no in a trail's first week, and after that whatever your Scorecard sends to review waits too.
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