creating-webhook-handlers

name	creating-webhook-handlers
description	Create webhook endpoints with signature verification, retry logic, and payload validation. Use when receiving and processing webhook events. Trigger with phrases like "create webhook", "handle webhook events", or "setup webhook handler".
allowed-tools	Read, Write, Edit, Grep, Glob, Bash(api:webhook-*)
version	1.0.0
author	Jeremy Longshore <[e-mail]>
license	MIT
compatible-with	claude-code, codex, openclaw
tags	["api","webhooks","webhook-handlers"]

Creating Webhook Handlers

Overview

Create secure webhook receiver endpoints with HMAC signature verification, idempotent event processing, and automatic retry handling. Support ingestion from providers like Stripe, GitHub, Twilio, and Slack with provider-specific signature validation schemes and payload parsing.

Prerequisites

• Web framework with raw body access (Express with express.raw(), FastAPI with Request.body())
• Webhook provider credentials: signing secret or shared secret key
• Persistent storage for idempotency tracking (Redis or database table for processed event IDs)
• Queue system for async processing (optional: Bull, Celery, SQS)
• ngrok or similar tunnel for local development testing

Instructions

1. Examine existing route definitions and middleware using Grep and Read to identify where webhook endpoints integrate into the application.
2. Create a dedicated webhook route (e.g., POST /webhooks/:provider) that captures the raw request body before any JSON parsing middleware runs.
3. Implement HMAC-SHA256 signature verification by computing HMAC(raw_body, signing_secret) and comparing against the provider's signature header (X-Hub-Signature-256, Stripe-Signature, X-Twilio-Signature).
4. Add idempotency protection by storing processed event IDs (e.g., evt_xxx) in Redis or a database table, rejecting duplicates with 200 OK to prevent provider retries.
5. Parse the event type from the payload (event.type, action, EventType) and route to the appropriate handler function using a dispatch map.
6. Respond with 200 OK immediately, then enqueue the event payload for asynchronous processing to avoid webhook timeout failures.
7. Implement dead-letter handling for events that fail processing after maximum retry attempts, logging the full payload for manual inspection.
8. Write tests that replay recorded webhook payloads with valid and tampered signatures to verify acceptance and rejection behavior.

See ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/references/implementation.md for the full implementation guide.

Output

• ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/src/webhooks/receiver.js - Webhook endpoint with signature verification
• ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/src/webhooks/handlers/ - Per-event-type handler functions
• ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/src/webhooks/verify.js - HMAC signature verification utilities