BerriAI/litellm · error · Exception

Missing webhook_url from environment

Error message

Missing webhook_url from environment

What it means

SlackAlerting.send_alert_webhook (budget alerts) posts to a generic webhook URL read from the WEBHOOK_URL environment variable; if unset it raises Exception (litellm/integrations/SlackAlerting/slack_alerting.py:1061). Unlike the Slack path, this generic path has no fallback.

Source

Thrown at litellm/integrations/SlackAlerting/slack_alerting.py:1061

    async def model_removed_alert(self, model_name: str):
        pass

    async def send_webhook_alert(self, webhook_event: WebhookEvent) -> bool:
        """
        Sends structured alert to webhook, if set.

        Currently only implemented for budget alerts

        Returns -> True if sent, False if not.

        Raises Exception
            - if WEBHOOK_URL is not set
        """

        webhook_url: Final = os.getenv("WEBHOOK_URL", None)
        if webhook_url is None:
            raise Exception("Missing webhook_url from environment")

        payload: Final = webhook_event.model_dump_json()
        headers: Final = {"Content-type": "application/json"}

        response: Final = await self.async_http_handler.post(
            url=webhook_url,
            headers=headers,
            data=payload,
        )
        if response.status_code == 200:
            return True
        else:
            print("Error sending webhook alert. Error=", response.text)  # noqa: T201

        return False

    async def _check_if_using_premium_email_feature(
        self,

View on GitHub (pinned to 6c2dcb801b)

Solutions

1. Export WEBHOOK_URL in the proxy/SDK process environment
2. If you meant Slack alerts, use SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL and the Slack alerting config instead of the generic webhook path
3. Verify the env var reaches the process (docker env, systemd Environment=, .env loading)
4. Guard the call site: skip webhook alerts when the env var is absent

Example fix

# before
await alerting.send_alert_webhook(event)  # WEBHOOK_URL unset

# after
import os
if os.getenv("WEBHOOK_URL"):
    await alerting.send_alert_webhook(event)

import os

def webhook_configured() -> bool:
    return bool(os.getenv("WEBHOOK_URL"))

try:
    await alerting.send_alert_webhook(event)
except Exception as e:
    if "Missing webhook_url" in str(e):
        log.warning("skipping webhook alert: WEBHOOK_URL not set")
    else:
        raise

When it happens

Trigger: Calling the alerting webhook send (budget alert flow) without WEBHOOK_URL exported; running the proxy with alerting configured for budget thresholds but only SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL set.

Common situations: Confusion between WEBHOOK_URL (generic webhook alerts) and SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL (Slack alerts); env file not loaded by the proxy process.

Related errors

• Missing SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL from environment
• PAGERDUTY_API_KEY is not set
• Trying to Customize Email Alerting {CommonProxyErrors.not_p
• AZURE_SENTINEL_DCR_IMMUTABLE_ID is required. Set it as an en
• AZURE_SENTINEL_ENDPOINT is required. Set it as an environmen

AI-assisted analysis of BerriAI/litellm@6c2dcb801b (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c252d000a689dd59. Report an issue: GitHub.