Webhook Architect

Webhook Architect Protocol

This skill focuses on building outbound webhooks that don't fail silently and don't overwhelm the consumer. An outbound webhook system must be treated as a mission-critical distributed system.

Core assumption: The consumer's server will go down. It will timeout. A good webhook architecture guarantees eventual delivery without blocking the main application flow.

1. Event Payload Design (Static)

Design the JSON structure of the event that will be sent.

• Envelope Pattern: Wrap the actual data in a standard envelope containing routing information.
  • event_id (UUID for tracing/idempotency).
  • event_type (e.g., order.created, payment.failed).
  • created_at (ISO 8601 Timestamp).
  • data (The actual payload, kept minimal or providing a full object).

2. Delivery & Reliability Strategy

Define how the system handles failure:

• Timeouts & Retries: Implement exponential backoff (e.g., retry instantly, then 1m, 1h, 6h, 24h).
• Dead Letter Queue (DLQ): Where do messages go after 5 failed retries? (e.g., A database table or queue for manual introspection).
• Idempotency: Force the consumer to implement an idempotency check by providing a unique event_id. Provide clear docs on how to do this.

3. Security Design

A webhook without validation is an open door.

• HMAC Signatures: Design a system where the payload is hashed with a shared secret (v1=sha256=...) sent in the X-Webhook-Signature header.
• Replay Attack Prevention: Add a timestamp header (X-Webhook-Timestamp) and enforce a 5-minute tolerance window.

4. Output Generation

Required Outputs (Must write BOTH to docs/api-report/):

1. Human-Readable Markdown (docs/api-report/webhook-architect-report.md)

### 🎣 Webhook Architecture Plan
- **Event Scope:** `user.created`, `user.deleted`
- **Security:** HMAC-SHA256 Signature in `X-MyCompany-Signature`

#### 📦 Payload Envelope Design
```json
{
  "event_id": "evt_123456789",
  "event_type": "user.created",
  "created_at": "2024-03-24T12:00:00Z",
  "data": {
    "user_id": "usr_987",
    "email": "hello@example.com"
  }
}

🔄 Retry Policy

• Initial Timeout: 5 seconds.
• Retry 1: +1 min.
• Retry 2: +1 hour.
• Retry 3: +24 hours -> move to DLQ.

2. **Machine-Readable JSON (`docs/api-report/webhook-architect-output.json`)**
```json
{
  "skill": "webhook-architect",
  "events": ["user.created", "user.deleted"],
  "signature_header": "X-MyCompany-Signature",
  "retry_policy": {"initial_timeout_sec": 5, "max_retries": 3, "dlq_enabled": true}
}

Guardrails

• Synchronous Delivery Ban: NEVER send webhooks inline during an HTTP request cycle. They must be offloaded to a background worker (e.g., Redis Queue, BullMQ, Celery).
• Fat vs. Thin Payloads: Recommend "Thin Payloads" (just sending IDs) if data privacy is critical. Warn against sending PII in webhooks unless explicitly required.