Technology Guides
What Is a Webhook?
Learn how one system notifies another about an event and how to handle retries, signatures and duplicates. Test successful, delayed, duplicate and invalid events before relying on an integration.
webhook often becomes confusing when responsibilities are unclear. A webhook is an HTTP message sent when an event occurs, such as a payment completing or a form being submitted. Delivery can be delayed, repeated or arrive out of order.
Start with the real situation
Learn how one system notifies another about an event and how to handle retries, signatures and duplicates. Clarity matters more than adding process for its own sake.
Work through these checks
- Verify the sender: Validate documented signatures and timestamps before trusting the payload.
- Respond quickly: Acknowledge receipt and move expensive work to a reliable background process.
- Handle duplicates: Use event identifiers and idempotent processing so retries do not repeat business actions.
- Monitor failures: Record delivery attempts, status and safe diagnostic context.
A short written baseline makes this work easier to review. Note the starting state, make a controlled change, and confirm both the intended result and nearby functions that could be affected.
What to avoid
Do not expose a webhook endpoint that performs privileged work without authentication and replay protection.
The useful outcome
Test successful, delayed, duplicate and invalid events before relying on an integration.
Related practical guides
For deeper technical background, see the MDN web technology guide. For hands-on help, explore SoftNSM's app development service or discuss the requirement.