Resources
Build more reliable webhook systems
Practical engineering resources for the failure modes every webhook consumer eventually hits: debugging failed deliveries, designing retry strategies, preventing duplicate side effects, verifying signatures, and operating webhook infrastructure safely.
Featured guides
Start with the problems that page you
Deep, step-by-step guides to the three failure modes behind most webhook incidents: deliveries that fail, retries that misbehave, and duplicates that double-process.
Debugging How to Debug Failed Webhooks: A Step-by-Step Guide A systematic walkthrough for diagnosing failed webhook deliveries: connectivity, status codes, timeouts, signatures, handler exceptions, and a production debugging checklist. 9 min read Security How to Verify Webhook Signatures in Go, Node.js and Python Verify webhook signatures correctly with HMAC: the raw-body requirement, timestamped signatures and replay windows, constant-time comparison, secret rotation, and working code in Go, Node.js and Python. 10 min read Idempotency Webhook Idempotency: Preventing Duplicate Payments and Actions Duplicate webhook deliveries are normal, not a bug. How to make handlers idempotent with event IDs, a processed-events table, database uniqueness, correct transaction boundaries, and production Go — so replays and retries never charge a customer twice. 11 min read
Browse by topic
Find resources by problem, not by format
Each topic collects the guides and reference material for one class of webhook problem.
Debugging Work a failed delivery from status code to root cause. Browse Retries Backoff, jitter, attempt limits, and what not to retry. Browse Security Signature verification, secret rotation, replay attacks. Browse Idempotency Process duplicate deliveries once, even under races. Browse Integrations Receive and troubleshoot webhooks from specific providers. Browse Architecture Design decisions: build vs buy, queues, persistence. Browse
Integrations
Provider-specific webhook guides
How to receive, verify, and troubleshoot webhooks from the platforms teams integrate most — including each provider's signature scheme and retry behaviour.
GitHub Receive and process GitHub webhooks reliably — X-Hub-Signature-256 verification, fast acknowledgement, event filtering with X-GitHub-Event, redelivery, and a debugging checklist. pushpull_requestworkflow_run Read the guide Paddle Receive and process Paddle webhooks reliably — Paddle-Signature (ts/h1) verification, fast acknowledgement, retries, dedupe on the event id, and a debugging checklist. transaction.completedsubscription.canceledsubscription.updated Read the guide Shopify Receive and process Shopify webhooks reliably — X-Shopify-Hmac-Sha256 verification, X-Shopify-Topic routing, fast acknowledgement, dedupe on X-Shopify-Webhook-Id, and a debugging checklist. orders/createorders/paidapp/uninstalled Read the guide Stripe How to receive, verify, and reliably process Stripe webhooks — signature verification with Stripe-Signature, fast acknowledgement, retries, idempotency, and a debugging checklist. invoice.payment_failedcheckout.session.completedcustomer.subscription.updated Read the guide Telegram Receive Telegram bot updates over webhooks — setWebhook with a secret_token, X-Telegram-Bot-Api-Secret-Token verification, getWebhookInfo diagnostics, update_id dedupe, and a debugging checklist. messagecallback_querymy_chat_member Read the guide
Comparisons
Choosing a webhook reliability approach
Neutral, dimension-by-dimension comparisons of the ways teams handle webhook debugging and delivery reliability — including when building it yourself is the right call.
- Comparison HookWatch vs Building In-House An honest comparison of adopting HookWatch versus building your own webhook ingestion, retry, and replay system — engineer-time, maintenance, security, and the cases where an internal build is the right call. 10 min read
- Comparison HookWatch vs Hookdeck Two inbound-webhook tools with different centres of gravity: Hookdeck as an event gateway for queueing and routing, HookWatch focused on capture, failure debugging, incidents, and safe replay — with honest overlap. 6 min read
- Comparison HookWatch vs RequestBin-Style Tools When an ephemeral request bin is exactly the right tool for inspecting a webhook payload, and when you need persistent delivery history, retries, and replay instead. 7 min read
- Comparison HookWatch vs Svix Sending versus receiving: Svix is primarily infrastructure for platforms that send webhooks to their customers, while HookWatch is for teams receiving webhooks. Different problems that often coexist. 6 min read
Latest updates
What's new in HookWatch
Release notes from the changelog — what was added, improved, and fixed.
- v1.17.0 MCP server and HTTP API docs The whole workspace API is exposed as roughly 48 MCP tools for AI assistants, alongside new public documentation for the HTTP API and MCP.
- v1.18.0 Workspace SSO and inactivity timeout Single sign-on through your own SAML 2.0 or OIDC identity provider, with an optional Require SSO enforcement and a session inactivity timeout.
- v1.19.0 Overage pricing on metered usage Paid plans can now run past their included usage with metered overage, with projected charges surfaced in billing settings before they land.
Get started
See what happened to every webhook
Everything in these resources leans on one capability: seeing the delivery. HookWatch records every request, response, and attempt, and gives you retry controls and safe replay when things go wrong.