How do I test webhooks locally before deploying?

Testing webhooks locally is usually done by making your local server reachable from the internet, or by simulating the sender. Common options:

1. Use a tunnel service

These expose your localhost to a public URL.

• ngrok: very popular

  ngrok http 3000
  

  It gives you a temporary public URL like https://abcd.ngrok.io that forwards to localhost:3000.

• Cloudflare Tunnel:

  cloudflared tunnel --url http://localhost:3000
  

• LocalTunnel:

  npx localtunnel --port 3000
  

Then configure the webhook provider to send events to that public URL, e.g.: https://abcd.ngrok.io/webhook

2. Use webhook testing tools

These help inspect incoming requests and replay them.

• Webhook.site
• Pipedream Webhook Inspector
• RequestBin-style tools

Great for checking payload shape and headers.

3. Mock the webhook sender

If you know the expected payload, you can send test requests directly with curl or Postman:

curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/webhook \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"event":"payment_succeeded","id":"evt_123"}'

This is useful for testing your handler logic without involving the real provider.

4. Use the provider’s test/sandbox mode

Many services let you:

• send test events
• use sandbox accounts
• configure development webhooks

Examples:

• Stripe test mode
• GitHub webhook delivery testing
• Shopify dev store webhooks

5. Record and replay real payloads

Capture a real webhook payload in production or staging, save it, and replay it locally against your endpoint. This helps test edge cases.

Good local workflow

1. Run your app locally.
2. Start a tunnel to expose the webhook endpoint.
3. Point the provider to the tunnel URL.
4. Log requests and verify signature validation.
5. Use test events to iterate quickly.

Important things to verify

• Raw request body handling for signature verification
• Correct headers and content type
• Idempotency handling for retries
• Response status codes and timeouts

If you want, I can show you a concrete setup for Stripe, GitHub, or Shopify webhooks locally.