Webhooks and event delivery

A webhook delivers an event to an HTTP endpoint chosen by its receiver. The receiver must decide whether the message is authentic, whether it has already been handled, and what processing should happen next. Reliable delivery depends on both sides of that contract.

Separate receipt from processing

Document the accepted event types, verification method, and delivery identity. Keep request handling bounded. If the work takes longer, acknowledge only after the event is safely recorded according to your design, then process it through a controlled worker. Provider timeout and retry policies need explicit review.

A practical sequence

• Confirm the sender and verify the message as specified.
• Record the event identity before applying side effects.
• Return the expected response within the sender’s delivery window.
• Process, observe, and reconcile failures through a defined workflow.

Watch for this failure mode

A repeated message is not always a new business event. Use the provider’s documented identity semantics and design duplicate handling deliberately. Do not assume messages arrive once or in chronological order unless the provider makes that guarantee.

Make the handoff clear

Create a delivery runbook with examples of verification failure, duplicate events, delayed processing, and downstream outages. A webhook that receives a successful HTTP response still needs an observable path to completed business processing.

Before expanding the workflow, write one representative success case and one useful failure case. Agree on the result shape and how a reviewer should decide whether the next step can proceed. Keep the example small enough that the assumptions remain visible.

Go deeper

Read the complete webhooks guide for examples and design decisions. Connect this step to integrations, or return to the workflow library to map the whole sequence.