clay-hello-world

Clay Hello World

Overview

Minimal working example: send a company domain to a Clay table via webhook, let Clay's enrichment columns fill in company data, and retrieve the enriched result. Clay does not have a traditional SDK — you interact with it via webhooks (data in), HTTP API columns (data out), and the web UI.

Prerequisites

• Completed clay-install-auth setup
• Clay workbook with a webhook source configured
• At least one enrichment column added to the table

Instructions

Step 1: Create a Clay Table with Enrichment

In the Clay web UI:

1. Create a new workbook
2. Add columns: domain, company_name, employee_count, industry
3. Click + Add at bottom, select Webhooks > Monitor webhook
4. Copy the webhook URL
5. Add an enrichment column: + Add Column > Enrich Company (uses the domain column as input)

Step 2: Send Your First Record via Webhook

# Send a single company domain to your Clay table
curl -X POST "https://app.clay.com/api/v1/webhooks/YOUR_WEBHOOK_ID" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"domain": "openai.com"}'

Within seconds, Clay creates a new row and auto-runs the enrichment column. The company_name, employee_count, and industry columns fill in automatically.

Step 3: Send Multiple Records

# Batch send — each object becomes a row
for domain in stripe.com notion.so figma.com linear.app; do
  curl -s -X POST "https://app.clay.com/api/v1/webhooks/YOUR_WEBHOOK_ID" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -d "{\"domain\": \"$domain\"}"
  echo " -> Sent $domain"
done

Step 4: Send from Node.js

// hello-clay.ts — send records to Clay via webhook
const CLAY_WEBHOOK_URL = process.env.CLAY_WEBHOOK_URL!;

interface LeadInput {
  email?: string;
  domain?: string;
  first_name?: string;
  last_name?: string;
  linkedin_url?: string;
}

async function sendToClay(lead: LeadInput): Promise<Response> {
  const response = await fetch(CLAY_WEBHOOK_URL, {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
    body: JSON.stringify(lead),
  });

  if (!response.ok) {
    throw new Error(`Clay webhook failed: ${response.status} ${response.statusText}`);
  }
  return response;
}

// Send a test lead
await sendToClay({
  email: 'jane@stripe.com',
  first_name: 'Jane',
  last_name: 'Doe',
  domain: 'stripe.com',
});
console.log('Record sent to Clay — check your table for enriched data.');

Step 5: Send from Python

import requests
import os

CLAY_WEBHOOK_URL = os.environ["CLAY_WEBHOOK_URL"]

def send_to_clay(lead: dict) -> requests.Response:
    """Send a lead record to a Clay table via webhook."""
    response = requests.post(
        CLAY_WEBHOOK_URL,
        json=lead,
        headers={"Content-Type": "application/json"},
    )
    response.raise_for_status()
    return response

# Test it
send_to_clay({
    "email": "jane@stripe.com",
    "first_name": "Jane",
    "last_name": "Doe",
    "domain": "stripe.com",
})
print("Record sent to Clay — check your table for enriched data.")

Error Handling

Error	Cause	Solution
404 Not Found	Invalid webhook URL	Re-copy URL from Clay table settings
422 Unprocessable	Invalid JSON payload	Validate JSON structure before sending
Row appears but no enrichment	Enrichment column not configured	Add enrichment column in Clay UI, enable auto-run
429 Too Many Requests	Exceeded webhook rate limit	Add 100ms delay between requests
Webhook limit reached (50K)	Webhook exhausted	Create a new webhook source on the table

Output

• New row(s) visible in your Clay table
• Enrichment columns auto-populated with company/person data
• Console confirmation of successful webhook delivery

Resources

• Clay University — Webhook Integration Guide
• Clay University — Using Clay as an API

Next Steps

Proceed to clay-local-dev-loop for iterating on enrichment workflows locally.