Webhooks - Spree Commerce documentation

Overview

Webhooks allow your Spree store to send real-time HTTP POST notifications to external services when events occur. When an order is completed, a product is updated, or inventory changes, Spree can automatically notify your CRM, fulfillment service, analytics platform, or any other system. Webhooks are built on top of Spree’s event system, providing:

Multi-store support - Each store has its own webhook endpoints
Event filtering - Subscribe to specific events or patterns with wildcards
Secure delivery - HMAC-SHA256 signatures for payload verification
Automatic retries - Failed deliveries retry with exponential backoff
Full audit trail - Track every delivery attempt with response codes and timing

How Webhooks Work

An event is published (e.g., order.completed)
The WebhookEventSubscriber receives all events
It finds active webhook endpoints subscribed to that event
For each endpoint, it creates a WebhookDelivery record and queues a job
The job sends an HTTP POST request with the event payload and HMAC signature

Creating Webhook Endpoints

Via Admin Panel

Navigate to Settings → Developers → Webhooks in the admin panel to create and manage webhook endpoints.

Via the Admin API

import { createAdminClient } from '@spree/admin-sdk'

const client = createAdminClient({
  baseUrl: 'https://store.example.com',
  secretKey: 'sk_xxx',
})

const endpoint = await client.webhookEndpoints.create({
  url: 'https://example.com/webhooks/spree',
  subscriptions: ['order.*', 'product.created'],
  active: true,
})

// secret_key is auto-generated and returned ONLY on create —
// store it now for HMAC signature verification.
endpoint.secret_key // => "a1b2c3d4e5f6..." (64-character hex string)

The secret_key is returned only once, in the create response. Save it immediately — it can’t be retrieved later and is required to verify webhook signatures.

Endpoint Attributes

Attribute	Type	Description
`url`	String	The HTTPS endpoint URL to receive webhooks
`active`	Boolean	Enable/disable delivery to this endpoint
`subscriptions`	Array	Event patterns to subscribe to
`secret_key`	String	Auto-generated key for HMAC signature verification

Endpoints always belong to the current store — the association is set automatically from the request scope, so you never pass it when creating or updating an endpoint.

Event Subscriptions

The subscriptions attribute controls which events trigger webhooks to this endpoint. Set it when creating the endpoint, or change it later:

await client.webhookEndpoints.update('whe_xxx', {
  subscriptions: ['order.completed', 'order.canceled'],
})

The subscriptions array accepts exact event names and wildcard patterns:

`subscriptions` value	Receives
`['order.completed', 'order.canceled']`	Only those two events
`['order.*']`	All order events
`['*.created']`	All creation events
`['order.', 'payment.', 'shipment.shipped']`	Multiple patterns
`[]` or `['*']`	All events

Webhook Payload

Each webhook delivery sends a JSON payload with the following structure. The data object uses the same Store API V3 serializers as the REST API, so webhook payloads and API responses share the same schema:

{
  "id": "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000",
  "name": "order.completed",
  "created_at": "2025-01-15T10:30:00Z",
  "data": {
    "id": "or_m3Rp9wXz",
    "number": "R123456789",
    "fulfillment_status": "shipped",
    "payment_status": "paid",
    "total": "99.99",
    "display_total": "$99.99",
    "total_quantity": 3,
    "currency": "USD",
    "items": [ ... ],
    "fulfillments": [ ... ],
    "payments": [ ... ]
  },
  "metadata": {
    "spree_version": "5.1.0"
  }
}

Field	Description
`id`	Unique UUID for this event
`name`	Event name (e.g., `order.completed`)
`created_at`	ISO8601 timestamp when event occurred
`data`	Serialized resource data (V3 API format with prefixed IDs)
`metadata`	Additional context including Spree version

For complete payload schemas for each event type, see Webhook Events & Payloads.

HTTP Request Details

Headers

Each webhook request includes these headers:

Header	Description
`Content-Type`	`application/json`
`User-Agent`	`Spree-Webhooks/1.0`
`X-Spree-Webhook-Event`	Event name (e.g., `order.completed`)
`X-Spree-Webhook-Signature`	HMAC-SHA256 signature for verification
`X-Spree-Webhook-Timestamp`	Unix timestamp (seconds) generated at send time; included in the HMAC-SHA256 signed string as `{timestamp}.{payload}` and required to verify `X-Spree-Webhook-Signature`

Verifying Webhook Signatures

To ensure webhooks are genuinely from your Spree store, verify the signature.

Next.js

The Spree Storefront includes a ready-made webhook route handler with signature verification and event routing. See the storefront email docs for details.

Any JavaScript/TypeScript framework

Use @spree/sdk/webhooks for framework-agnostic verification:

import { verifyWebhookSignature } from '@spree/sdk/webhooks'
import type { WebhookEvent } from '@spree/sdk/webhooks'
import type { Order } from '@spree/sdk'

// Hono, Cloudflare Workers, or any Web Fetch API-based framework
app.post('/webhooks/spree', async (req, res) => {
  const body = await req.text()
  const signature = req.headers['x-spree-webhook-signature']
  const timestamp = req.headers['x-spree-webhook-timestamp']

  if (!verifyWebhookSignature(body, signature, timestamp, process.env.SPREE_WEBHOOK_SECRET!)) {
    return res.status(401).json({ error: 'Invalid signature' })
  }

  const event: WebhookEvent<Order> = JSON.parse(body)
  // handle event...
  res.json({ received: true })
})

Ruby

class WebhooksController < ApplicationController
  skip_before_action :verify_authenticity_token

  def receive
    unless verify_signature
      head :unauthorized
      return
    end

    event = JSON.parse(request.body.read)

    case event['name']
    when 'order.completed'
      handle_order_completed(event['data'])
    when 'product.updated'
      handle_product_updated(event['data'])
    end

    head :ok
  end

  private

  def verify_signature
    payload = request.body.read
    request.body.rewind

    signature = request.headers['X-Spree-Webhook-Signature']
    timestamp = request.headers['X-Spree-Webhook-Timestamp']
    expected = OpenSSL::HMAC.hexdigest('SHA256', ENV['SPREE_WEBHOOK_SECRET'], "#{timestamp}.#{payload}")

    ActiveSupport::SecurityUtils.secure_compare(signature.to_s, expected)
  end
end

Delivery Status & Retries

Automatic Retries

Failed webhook deliveries automatically retry up to 5 times with exponential backoff. This handles temporary network issues and endpoint downtime.

Checking Delivery Status

Inspect an endpoint’s delivery log, and re-send a failed delivery, via the Admin API:

// Recent deliveries for an endpoint
const { data: deliveries } = await client.webhookEndpoints.deliveries.list('whe_xxx')

// Re-send a specific delivery
await client.webhookEndpoints.deliveries.redeliver('whe_xxx', 'whd_xxx')

Delivery Attributes

Attribute	Description
`event_name`	Name of the event delivered
`payload`	Complete webhook payload sent
`response_code`	HTTP status code (nil if pending)
`success`	Boolean indicating 2xx response
`execution_time`	Delivery time in milliseconds
`error_type`	`'timeout'`, `'connection_error'`, or nil
`request_errors`	Error message details
`response_body`	Response from endpoint (truncated)
`delivered_at`	Timestamp of delivery attempt

Configuration

Enabling/Disabling Webhooks

Webhooks are enabled by default. To disable globally:

# config/initializers/spree.rb
Spree::Api::Config.webhooks_enabled = false

SSL Verification

SSL verification is enabled by default in production. In development, it’s disabled to allow testing with self-signed certificates:

# config/initializers/spree.rb
Spree::Api::Config.webhooks_verify_ssl = true  # Force SSL verification
Spree::Api::Config.webhooks_verify_ssl = false # Disable (not recommended for production)

Available Events

Webhooks can subscribe to any event in Spree’s event system. See Events for a complete list. Common webhook events include:

Event	Description
`order.completed`	Order checkout finished
`order.canceled`	Order was canceled
`order.paid`	Order is fully paid
`shipment.shipped`	Shipment was shipped
`payment.paid`	Payment was completed
`product.created`	New product created
`product.updated`	Product was modified
`user.created`	New customer/user registered (the admin user class emits `admin.created`)

Testing Webhooks

In Development

Use tools like ngrok or webhook.site to test webhooks locally. Create a test endpoint pointed at the tunnel:

const endpoint = await client.webhookEndpoints.create({
  url: 'https://your-ngrok-url.ngrok.io/webhooks',
  subscriptions: ['order.*'],
  active: true,
})

// Fire a synthetic delivery to confirm it's reachable
await client.webhookEndpoints.sendTest(endpoint.id)

send_test delivers a synthetic webhook.test event so you can verify the endpoint is reachable and your signature-verification code works, without having to trigger a real order.

In Tests

RSpec.describe 'Webhook delivery' do
  let(:store) { create(:store) }
  let(:endpoint) { create(:webhook_endpoint, store: store, subscriptions: ['order.completed']) }
  let(:order) { create(:completed_order_with_totals, store: store) }

  it 'delivers webhook when order completes' do
    stub_request(:post, endpoint.url).to_return(status: 200)

    expect {
      order.publish_event('order.completed')
    }.to have_enqueued_job(Spree::WebhookDeliveryJob)
  end
end

Best Practices

Respond quickly

Return a 2xx response as fast as possible. Process webhook data asynchronously in a background job.

Verify signatures

Always verify the X-Spree-Webhook-Signature header to ensure the webhook is authentic.

Handle duplicates

Use the event id to detect and handle duplicate deliveries. Webhooks may be retried.

Subscribe selectively

Only subscribe to events you need. Use specific patterns rather than * when possible.

Troubleshooting

Webhooks Not Delivering

Check that webhooks are enabled: Spree::Api::Config.webhooks_enabled
Verify the endpoint is active: endpoint.active?
Confirm the endpoint subscribes to the event: endpoint.subscribed_to?('order.completed')
Check the event has a store_id matching the endpoint’s store

Signature Verification Failing

Ensure you’re using the raw request body (not parsed JSON)
Verify you’re using the correct secret_key for this endpoint
Check that no middleware is modifying the request body

Deliveries Failing

Check the delivery records for details — each carries error_type, request_errors, response_code, and response_body. Filter the log with Ransack predicates such as success_eq=false or event_name_eq:

const { data: deliveries } = await client.webhookEndpoints.deliveries.list('whe_xxx', {
  success_eq: false,
})
const failed = deliveries[0]
// failed.error_type, failed.request_errors, failed.response_code, failed.response_body

Events - Understanding Spree’s event system
Admin SDK - Setting up the @spree/admin-sdk client used in the management examples above
Customization Quickstart - Overview of all customization options
Dependencies - Customizing Spree services

​Overview

​How Webhooks Work

​Creating Webhook Endpoints

​Via Admin Panel

​Via the Admin API

​Endpoint Attributes

​Event Subscriptions

​Webhook Payload

​HTTP Request Details

​Headers

​Verifying Webhook Signatures

​Next.js

​Any JavaScript/TypeScript framework

​Ruby

​Delivery Status & Retries

​Automatic Retries

​Checking Delivery Status

​Delivery Attributes

​Configuration

​Enabling/Disabling Webhooks

​SSL Verification

​Available Events

​Testing Webhooks

​In Development

​In Tests

​Best Practices

Respond quickly

Verify signatures

Handle duplicates

Subscribe selectively

​Troubleshooting

​Webhooks Not Delivering

​Signature Verification Failing

​Deliveries Failing

​Related Documentation

Overview

How Webhooks Work

Creating Webhook Endpoints

Via Admin Panel

Via the Admin API

Endpoint Attributes

Event Subscriptions

Webhook Payload

HTTP Request Details

Headers

Verifying Webhook Signatures

Next.js

Any JavaScript/TypeScript framework

Ruby

Delivery Status & Retries

Automatic Retries

Checking Delivery Status

Delivery Attributes

Configuration

Enabling/Disabling Webhooks

SSL Verification

Available Events

Testing Webhooks

In Development

In Tests

Best Practices

Troubleshooting

Webhooks Not Delivering

Signature Verification Failing

Deliveries Failing

Related Documentation