Text from HighLevel workflows through your own number

Make a Text Hook

In the BlueBot dashboard, open Text Hooks and press New hook. Name it after the workflow (“New member welcome”) and save. Copy the hook’s address: https://usebluebot.com/h/ followed by a long token. Treat it like a password, because anyone with it can make your hook text somebody.

Add the Webhook action to your workflow

In HighLevel, open Automation, then Workflows, and open the workflow that should text, such as the one that starts when a contact is created. Add an action, choose Webhook, set the method to POST and paste the hook’s address as the URL.

If the workflow has a Send SMS action for the same text, delete it, or every contact gets two texts from two numbers. Leave HighLevel’s other actions where they are.

Run the workflow once with yourself

Make a contact in HighLevel with your own first name and your own mobile number, and let the workflow run for it (add it to the workflow by hand if it doesn’t start on its own).

Back on the hook’s page in BlueBot, the test panel lists the last 20 posts by their field names. BlueBot never shows or keeps the values there, only the names. A HighLevel post carries the contact at the top level, with names such as first_name, phone, email and contact_id.

Map the recipient and write the text

Set Recipient to the phone field. Press a field in the test panel to put its path into the template; a template reads the post under body:

Hi {{body.first_name}}, it’s Alex from Summit Fitness. Thanks for signing up. Want to book a free intro session this week?

Under Metadata, add ghl_contact_id set to {{body.contact_id}}. BlueBot echoes metadata on every webhook about the text, so anything you build on those webhooks later knows which HighLevel contact a text was for.

Turn on Create a contact and add the tag highlevel, then save the hook.

Test it with your own number

Run the workflow for your own contact again. A text arrives on your phone from your own number within a few seconds, and the hook’s page lists the post.

Make a Private Integration in HighLevel

In the sub-account, open Settings, then Private Integrations, and create one named “BlueBot replies” with the scopes View Contacts and Edit Contacts (contacts.readonly and contacts.write). Copy its token. Copy the sub-account’s Location ID from Settings → Business Profile too.

Make a BlueBot webhook

In BlueBot, open Developers, then Webhooks, and make one for your server with message.received and contact.stopped ticked, or with the API:

curl -X POST "https://usebluebot.com/api/v1/webhooks" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BLUEBOT_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "url": "https://summitfitness.example/bluebot/webhooks",
    "events": [
      "message.received",
      "contact.stopped"
    ],
    "description": "Replies to HighLevel"
  }'

Copy the signing secret from the answer; it’s shown once.

export BLUEBOT_API_KEY="bb_live_…"
export BLUEBOT_WEBHOOK_SECRET="whsec_…"
export GHL_TOKEN="pit-…"
export GHL_LOCATION_ID="…"

Write the handler

HighLevel’s API finds a contact by phone number with its duplicate search, which matches a number however it was typed. The handler adds the reply as a note and tags anyone who stopped. It skips group chats, and it keeps the event ids it has handled so a retried delivery never adds a note twice (in memory here; use a table in production).

// server.ts: npm install express @usebluebot/sdk
import express from 'express';
import BlueBot, { WebhookVerificationError } from '@usebluebot/sdk';

const bluebot = new BlueBot({ apiKey: process.env.BLUEBOT_API_KEY });
const GHL = 'https://services.leadconnectorhq.com';
const handled = new Set<string>(); // event ids; use a table in production

async function ghl(path: string, init: RequestInit = {}) {
  const response = await fetch(`${GHL}${path}`, {
    ...init,
    headers: {
      Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.GHL_TOKEN}`,
      Version: '2021-07-28',
      'Content-Type': 'application/json',
      Accept: 'application/json',
    },
  });
  if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`HighLevel answered ${response.status}`);
  return response.json();
}

async function findContact(number: string): Promise<string | null> {
  const query = new URLSearchParams({ locationId: process.env.GHL_LOCATION_ID!, number });
  const result = await ghl(`/contacts/search/duplicate?${query}`);
  return result.contact?.id ?? null;
}

const app = express();

app.post('/bluebot/webhooks', express.raw({ type: 'application/json' }), async (req, res) => {
  let event;
  try {
    event = bluebot.webhooks.verify(req.body.toString('utf8'), req.headers, process.env.BLUEBOT_WEBHOOK_SECRET!);
  } catch (error) {
    if (error instanceof WebhookVerificationError) return res.status(400).send('Bad signature');
    throw error;
  }
  if (handled.has(event.id)) return res.status(204).end();

  try {
    if (event.type === 'message.received' && !event.data.chatId) {
      const message = event.data;
      const contactId = await findContact(message.from!);
      if (contactId) {
        const words = message.text ?? `(sent ${message.files.length} file${message.files.length === 1 ? '' : 's'})`;
        await ghl(`/contacts/${contactId}/notes`, {
          method: 'POST',
          body: JSON.stringify({ body: `Text from ${message.from}: ${words}` }),
        });
      }
    }
    if (event.type === 'contact.stopped') {
      const contactId = await findContact(event.data.handle);
      if (contactId) {
        await ghl(`/contacts/${contactId}/tags`, { method: 'POST', body: JSON.stringify({ tags: ['stopped-texting'] }) });
      }
    }
    handled.add(event.id);
    res.status(204).end();
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('Could not update HighLevel', event.id, error instanceof Error ? error.message : error);
    res.status(500).end(); // BlueBot tries again
  }
});

app.listen(3000);

The log lines name the event and never the words of a text. Keep it that way.

Skip stopped contacts in your workflows

Add an If/Else to the start of each workflow that texts: when the contact has the tag stopped-texting, end the workflow. BlueBot would cancel the text anyway, since the person is on your stop list, but skipping them keeps canceled texts out of the workflow’s history.

Test it with your own number

Reply to the welcome text you sent yourself in part 1, from your phone. Open your contact in HighLevel.