Expose your local endpoint (local development)

When you build on your own machine, your server runs at something like http://localhost:3000. That address only exists on your computer — InsurGrid's servers can't reach it, and it isn't HTTPS. So webhooks will never arrive while you develop, unless you bridge that gap.

The fix is a tunnel: a tool that gives your local server a temporary public HTTPS URL and forwards any request on that URL to localhost. This is standard for webhook development — Stripe, GitHub, and every webhook provider expect it.

Using ngrok (quickest)

1. Install ngrok and sign up for a free account.

2. Start your local server (say, on port 3000).

3. In a second terminal, run:

   ngrok http 3000

4. ngrok prints a public HTTPS URL that forwards to your local server:

   Forwarding   https://a1b2-34-56-78-90.ngrok-free.app -> http://localhost:3000

5. Copy that https://… URL, add your endpoint path, and register it in the dashboard's API section as your staging webhook URL:

   https://a1b2-34-56-78-90.ngrok-free.app/hooks/insurgrid

Now any webhook InsurGrid sends to that URL is forwarded straight to your localhost server, and you can set breakpoints and read logs like normal.

Good to know

• The URL changes each restart on the free plan. When you restart ngrok, update the URL in the dashboard. (A paid ngrok plan or a reserved domain gives you a stable URL.)

• Any tunnel works — Cloudflare Tunnel, localtunnel, or others. ngrok is just the most common.

• This is for development only. In production, register your real deployed HTTPS URL instead.

• Inspect what's arriving at ngrok's local dashboard (http://127.0.0.1:4040) — handy when debugging.

You're ready. Continue to Quickstart A →