How to Push GitHub Leads to Beehiiv

Why Beehiiv + GitHub Signals Is a Powerful Growth Channel

Beehiiv is the newsletter platform of choice for developer-focused publications. If you run a developer newsletter — covering a framework, a tool category, or a developer niche — GitHub is your richest source of high-intent subscribers. Developers who just starred a relevant repo or opened an issue about a problem your newsletter covers are the exact audience you want.

GitLeads monitors GitHub for developer buying signals in real time. When a developer stars a tracked repo or mentions a keyword in a GitHub issue or PR, GitLeads captures their profile, enriches it with name, email, bio, company, and top languages, then pushes it to your destination — including Beehiiv via webhook.

How to Connect GitLeads to Beehiiv

Beehiiv exposes a subscriber API that allows programmatic addition of subscribers to your publication. GitLeads pushes leads to any webhook endpoint, making Beehiiv integration straightforward via a small serverless function or using Make/n8n as middleware.

Option 1: GitLeads Webhook → Beehiiv Subscriber API (Direct)

// Vercel/Netlify/Cloudflare Function: /api/gitleads-to-beehiiv
import type { VercelRequest, VercelResponse } from '@vercel/node';

interface GitLeadsLead {
  github_username: string;
  name: string;
  email?: string;
  bio?: string;
  company?: string;
  signal: { type: string; repo?: string; keyword?: string };
}

export default async function handler(req: VercelRequest, res: VercelResponse) {
  if (req.method !== 'POST') return res.status(405).end();

  const lead = req.body as GitLeadsLead;

  // Only add leads who have a public email
  if (!lead.email) return res.status(200).json({ skipped: 'no email' });

  const BEEHIIV_PUBLICATION_ID = process.env.BEEHIIV_PUBLICATION_ID!;
  const BEEHIIV_API_KEY = process.env.BEEHIIV_API_KEY!;

  const response = await fetch(
    `https://api.beehiiv.com/v2/publications/${BEEHIIV_PUBLICATION_ID}/subscriptions`,
    {
      method: 'POST',
      headers: {
        'Content-Type': 'application/json',
        Authorization: `Bearer ${BEEHIIV_API_KEY}`,
      },
      body: JSON.stringify({
        email: lead.email,
        reactivate_existing: false,
        send_welcome_email: true,
        utm_source: 'gitleads',
        utm_medium: 'github_signal',
        utm_campaign: lead.signal.repo ?? lead.signal.keyword ?? 'signal',
        custom_fields: [
          { name: 'github_username', value: lead.github_username },
          { name: 'company', value: lead.company ?? '' },
          { name: 'signal_type', value: lead.signal.type },
        ],
      }),
    }
  );

  const data = await response.json();
  return res.status(200).json({ beehiiv: data });
}

Option 2: GitLeads → Make or n8n → Beehiiv

If you prefer no-code: in GitLeads, set your destination to Webhook. In Make, create a scenario with a Webhook trigger. Add a Filter: only continue if {{email}} is not empty. Add a Beehiiv "Create Subscriber" module using your API key and publication ID. Map the email field and add custom fields for github_username and signal context. Activate and test.

Best Practices for GitHub-to-Beehiiv Lead Flows

• Only add leads with public emails — Beehiiv opt-in compliance requires explicit consent signals; use a welcome email to confirm interest
• Tag subscribers by signal source (repo name or keyword) so you can segment and personalize content
• Set utm_source=gitleads so Beehiiv attribution shows your GitHub growth channel separately
• Use Beehiiv custom fields to store github_username and company — useful for segmenting posts to "startup founders" vs "enterprise engineers"
• Consider a dedicated GitLeads-sourced automation sequence in Beehiiv — welcome, best issues, and product announcement flows

What GitHub Signals Are Best for Newsletter Growth?

• Stargazers of repos in your newsletter niche — these developers just showed active interest in your topic
• Keyword signals matching your newsletter topic — "observability cost", "next.js performance", "LLM latency" etc.
• Issue openers on repos you cover — active practitioners willing to engage
• Contributors to repos in your niche — likely interested in advanced content