SonarSource/sonarqube · error · IllegalArgumentException

Maximum number of global webhooks reached

Error message

Maximum number of global webhooks reached

What it means

Thrown by CreateAction.checkNumberOfGlobalWebhooks when creating a global (project-less) webhook and the count of existing global webhooks already equals MAX_NUMBER_OF_WEBHOOKS. The api/webhooks/create endpoint returns a 400 IllegalArgumentException when the cap is hit.

Solutions

1. List global webhooks with GET api/webhooks/list and delete stale ones via api/webhooks/delete.
2. Update an existing global webhook (api/webhooks/update) rather than adding another.
3. Move integration to project-level webhooks where per-project limits are separate.

Example fix

// before
curl -u $ADMIN_TOKEN -X POST "$SONAR/api/webhooks/create?name=org-hook&url=$URL" // fails at cap
// after
COUNT=$(curl -su $ADMIN_TOKEN "$SONAR/api/webhooks/list" | jq '.webhooks | length')
if [ "$COUNT" -lt 10 ]; then curl -u $ADMIN_TOKEN -X POST "$SONAR/api/webhooks/create?name=org-hook&url=$URL"; fi

COUNT=$(curl -su "$ADMIN_TOKEN" "$SONAR/api/webhooks/list" | jq '.webhooks | length')
[ "$COUNT" -lt 10 ] || echo "global webhook cap reached"

try {
  createGlobalWebhook(...);
} catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
  if (e.getMessage().contains("Maximum number of global webhooks reached")) {
    updateExistingGlobalWebhookInstead();
  }
}

When it happens

Trigger: POST api/webhooks/create without a 'project' parameter while the instance already has the maximum number of global webhooks.

Common situations: Automated setup scripts that add a global webhook on every environment bootstrap; org-wide integrations accumulating after instance consolidation; repeated non-idempotent provisioning runs.

Related errors

• Maximum number of webhook reached for project
• %s
• Both 'severity' and 'impacts' parameters cannot be set at…
• Cannot change the assignee of this hotspot given its…
• Cannot parse

AI-assisted analysis of SonarSource/sonarqube@184c821202 (2026-09-09). Data as JSON: /api/errors/31d0d791aee5ae2d. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at server/sonar-webserver-webapi/src/main/java/org/sonar/server/webhook/ws/CreateAction.java:180

      .setUrl(dto.getUrl())
      .setHasSecret(dto.getSecret() != null);
    writeProtobuf(newBuilder().setWebhook(webhookBuilder).build(), request, response);
  }

  private static void checkNumberOfWebhook(int nbOfWebhooks, String projectKey) {
    if (nbOfWebhooks >= MAX_NUMBER_OF_WEBHOOKS) {
      throw new IllegalArgumentException(format("Maximum number of webhook reached for project '%s'", projectKey));
    }
  }

  private int numberOfWebhookOf(DbSession dbSession, ProjectDto projectDto) {
    return dbClient.webhookDao().selectByProject(dbSession, projectDto).size();
  }

  private void checkNumberOfGlobalWebhooks(DbSession dbSession) {
    int globalWebhooksCount = dbClient.webhookDao().selectGlobalWebhooks(dbSession).size();
    if (globalWebhooksCount >= MAX_NUMBER_OF_WEBHOOKS) {
      throw new IllegalArgumentException("Maximum number of global webhooks reached");
    }
  }
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 184c821202)