Webhook test events have different time formats than actual events

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Summary

GitLab Webhooks have different time formats when testing a webhook in comparison to actual event triggers. I found this behaviour specifically with pipeline events, which were causing ingestion problems in OpenSearch with the different time formats between the two events.

Steps to reproduce

  1. Create a project with a simple pipeline (echo 'hello world' for example)
  2. Create a project level webhook with Pipeline events trigger, using one of our documented debugging methods
  3. Run a pipeline or ensure a pipeline has previously run on the project
  4. Test the webhook manually, store webhook payload.
  5. Trigger a new pipeline on the project, observe webhook is triggered and store the payload

From this example, you will notice the different time formats for some fields. See below example:

Pipeline event trigger (automatic)

"finished_at":"2025-05-21 16:06:02 UTC"

Manual test event trigger

"finished_at":"2025-05-21T16:06:02.869Z"

Example Project

Reproduced on self-managed.

What is the current bug behavior?

Webhook test events have different time format than actual triggered webhook events. Causes some potential processing/ingestion problems.

What is the expected correct behavior?

Times should be in the same format (RFC3339)

Relevant logs and/or screenshots

Sanitised Logs

Automatic pipeline event trigger

{"object_kind":"pipeline","object_attributes":{"id":5,"iid":4,"name":null,"ref":"main","tag":false,"sha":"482d523b0cda5182a41ae441c920800c0bd262ca","before_sha":"0000000000000000000000000000000000000000","source":"web","status":"success","detailed_status":"passed","stages":["debug"],"created_at":"2025-05-21 16:05:54 UTC","finished_at":"2025-05-21 16:06:03 UTC","duration":5,"queued_duration":3,"variables":[],"url":"https://gitlab.example.com/acme-corp/webhook-debug/simple-pipeline/-/pipelines/5"},"merge_request":null,"user":{"id":2,"name":"Thomas","username":"thomas","avatar_url":"https://gitlab.example.com/uploads/-/system/user/avatar/2/HD-headshot.png","email":"[REDACTED]"},"project":{"id":17,"name":"Simple Pipeline","description":null,"web_url":"https://gitlab.example.com/acme-corp/webhook-debug/simple-pipeline","avatar_url":null,"git_ssh_url":"ssh://git@gitlab.example.com:2222/acme-corp/webhook-debug/simple-pipeline.git","git_http_url":"https://gitlab.example.com/acme-corp/webhook-debug/simple-pipeline.git","namespace":"Webhook Debug","visibility_level":0,"path_with_namespace":"acme-corp/webhook-debug/simple-pipeline","default_branch":"main","ci_config_path":null},"commit":{"id":"482d523b0cda5182a41ae441c920800c0bd262ca","message":"Update file .gitlab-ci.yml","title":"Update file .gitlab-ci.yml","timestamp":"2025-05-21T10:56:37+00:00","url":"https://gitlab.example.com/acme-corp/webhook-debug/simple-pipeline/-/commit/482d523b0cda5182a41ae441c920800c0bd262ca","author":{"name":"Thomas","email":"email@example.com"}},"builds":[{"id":5,"stage":"debug","name":"hello-world","status":"success","created_at":"2025-05-21 16:05:54 UTC","started_at":"2025-05-21 16:05:57 UTC","finished_at":"2025-05-21 16:06:02 UTC","duration":5.072297,"queued_duration":2.179805,"failure_reason":null,"when":"on_success","manual":false,"allow_failure":false,"user":{"id":2,"name":"Thomas","username":"thomas","avatar_url":"https://gitlab.example.com/uploads/-/system/user/avatar/2/HD-headshot.png","email":"[REDACTED]"},"runner":{"id":2,"description":"","runner_type":"instance_type","active":true,"is_shared":true,"tags":[]},"artifacts_file":{"filename":null,"size":null},"environment":null}]}

Manual test pipeline event trigger

{"object_kind":"pipeline","object_attributes":{"id":5,"iid":4,"name":null,"ref":"main","tag":false,"sha":"482d523b0cda5182a41ae441c920800c0bd262ca","before_sha":"0000000000000000000000000000000000000000","source":"web","status":"success","detailed_status":"passed","stages":["debug"],"created_at":"2025-05-21T16:05:54.719Z","finished_at":"2025-05-21T16:06:03.075Z","duration":5,"queued_duration":3,"variables":[],"url":"https://gitlab.example.com/acme-corp/webhook-debug/simple-pipeline/-/pipelines/5"},"merge_request":null,"user":{"id":2,"name":"Thomas","username":"thomas","avatar_url":"https://gitlab.example.com/uploads/-/system/user/avatar/2/HD-headshot.png","email":"[REDACTED]"},"project":{"id":17,"name":"Simple Pipeline","description":null,"web_url":"https://gitlab.example.com/acme-corp/webhook-debug/simple-pipeline","avatar_url":null,"git_ssh_url":"ssh://git@gitlab.example.com:2222/acme-corp/webhook-debug/simple-pipeline.git","git_http_url":"https://gitlab.example.com/acme-corp/webhook-debug/simple-pipeline.git","namespace":"Webhook Debug","visibility_level":0,"path_with_namespace":"acme-corp/webhook-debug/simple-pipeline","default_branch":"main","ci_config_path":null},"commit":{"id":"482d523b0cda5182a41ae441c920800c0bd262ca","message":"Update file .gitlab-ci.yml","title":"Update file .gitlab-ci.yml","timestamp":"2025-05-21T10:56:37+00:00","url":"https://gitlab.example.com/acme-corp/webhook-debug/simple-pipeline/-/commit/482d523b0cda5182a41ae441c920800c0bd262ca","author":{"name":"Thomas","email":"email@example.com"}},"builds":[{"id":5,"stage":"debug","name":"hello-world","status":"success","created_at":"2025-05-21T16:05:54.738Z","started_at":"2025-05-21T16:05:57.797Z","finished_at":"2025-05-21T16:06:02.869Z","duration":5.072297,"queued_duration":2.179805,"failure_reason":null,"when":"on_success","manual":false,"allow_failure":false,"user":{"id":2,"name":"Thomas","username":"thomas","avatar_url":"https://gitlab.example.com/uploads/-/system/user/avatar/2/HD-headshot.png","email":"[REDACTED]"},"runner":{"id":2,"description":"","runner_type":"instance_type","active":true,"is_shared":true,"tags":[]},"artifacts_file":{"filename":null,"size":null},"environment":null}]}

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