Airtable is too fast! Help me throttle webhooks.

[Jeff_Hladek]

Okay, a bit of context for clarity.

I have a base that I am using for tracking inventory. We send out the packages of items. Sometimes we have some of the items in stock, and sometimes we need to order more before the package is sent. 

I am using an interface that lets the end user select the items that they want to add to the package. Then they have the option to click a button to trigger an automation.

The automation looks in the table and finds all items with a check box. Then, using a repeating group, it send the relvant infromation for each item to Make via a webhook. Make then checks to see if the qty needed is less than or equal to the qty in inventory. If it is, Make creates a new record in an Inventory Change Log table to remove that qty of items from the Inventory table. The problem I am facing is if two items with the same name are sent at the same time, the webhooks are sent to make faster than make can process through them.

For instance:
Say I have 1 trashcan left in stock. If two orders are places at the same time, or really close to each other, than things go wrong. the first order that comes in will befine, the data will show that we have 1 in stock and the order was for 1. It will proess and update the inventory. But the second order will have been sent to make at the same time. So it will also show that we have 1 in stock. So Make will create two records in the change log that -1 from inventory. 

What I need to happen is that Airtable will send one webhook, then wait for Make to processes that data before it moves on to the next item in the repeating group.

I hope that all makes sense. If yall have any ideas or insight, that would be great! I can provide more information if needed.!

[TheTimeSavingCo]

Hmm, I don't think we have control over the repeating groups I'm afraid.  I vaguely remember testing this and realizing they just ran in parallel or something

Any chance you could move the checking logic to Make, and get that Make scenario to process sequentially? 

[ScottWorld · Accepted solution]

@Jeff_Hladek 

The solution to your problem is that when you are using Make’s advanced automations and integrations, you want to tell Make to process your custom webhooks sequentially instead of simultaneously.

To do this, go into your Make scenario, click on the gear icon at the bottom of the screen, and enable the option to process items sequentially.

Hope this helps! If you’d like to hire an expert Airtable & Make consultant  to help you with anything Airtable-related, please feel free to contact me through my website: Airtable & Make consultant — ScottWorld 

[Jeff_Hladek]

@ScottWorld THE GOAT!!

That worked, I just had to add an additional Module to get the inventory qty, but after that it worked great! 

[Sachin_191]

Hey @Jeff_Hladek 

Thanks for the added detail! Sounds like you’ve got a smart workflow set up, but it’s just missing a safeguard to prevent duplicate inventory updates when multiple orders hit at once. Here's a robust solution to ensure Airtable only sends the next item after Make processes the previous one:

1. Instead of Airtable triggering a webhook for each item immediately, configure a delay or queue in Airtable’s automation. You could use a field to mark items as “Processing” right after the webhook is sent, with Make updating this to “Complete” once it processes the data. The automation can then check the status field before sending the next webhook.

2. In Make, add a rate-limit module to pause or limit how many requests are processed in a given time frame. This will prevent Make from processing webhooks simultaneously, allowing it to update inventory in sequence.

3. Alternatively, add a locking mechanism in Airtable. For example, when Make receives a webhook for an item, it marks the stock quantity as "locked" or reduces it temporarily. This way, any simultaneous order would see the adjusted quantity.