Webhooks

If you’re debugging “CORS errors with SendGrid webhooks,” there’s a decent chance you’re solving the wrong problem. I’ve seen teams burn hours tweaking Access-Control-Allow-Origin on webhook endpoints that were never meant to be called by a browser in the first place. SendGrid webhooks are server-to-server callbacks. CORS is a browser enforcement layer. Those are two very different worlds. The real mess usually starts when someone tries to involve frontend JavaScript in webhook flows. ...

Shopify webhooks and CORS get mixed up constantly. I’ve seen teams burn hours “fixing CORS” on webhook endpoints that were never touched by a browser in the first place. Shopify sends webhooks server-to-server. Browsers enforce CORS. Those are different worlds. So the short version is: Shopify webhook delivery does not require CORS Your frontend talking to your backend may require CORS Your webhook endpoint should usually not be exposed for browser cross-origin access at all That distinction saves a lot of confusion. ...

Stripe webhooks and CORS get mixed together constantly, and that usually means someone is solving the wrong problem. I’ve seen this play out the same way more than once: payments work in Stripe Checkout, the webhook endpoint is live, then somebody opens DevTools, sees a failed browser request, and starts adding Access-Control-Allow-Origin: * to the webhook route. A few commits later, webhook signature verification breaks, preflight requests start showing up where they never mattered, and the team is less sure than before what CORS even applies to. ...

GitHub webhooks and CORS get mixed together constantly, and that usually leads to the wrong architecture. Here’s the blunt version: GitHub webhooks do not need CORS. Browsers need CORS. GitHub’s webhook delivery system is server-to-server HTTP. If GitHub is POSTing an event to your endpoint, CORS is irrelevant because no browser is enforcing cross-origin restrictions. The browser is the thing that cares about Access-Control-Allow-Origin, preflights, and exposed headers. GitHub’s webhook infrastructure does not. ...

Mailgun webhooks and CORS get mixed up all the time, mostly because they solve different problems. Here’s the blunt version: Mailgun sending a webhook to your server does not need CORS Your browser calling your webhook endpoint does need CORS Your frontend should usually not call Mailgun directly That’s the whole mental model. If you keep those three rules straight, most confusion disappears. The short answer If Mailgun sends an event like delivered, opened, or failed to your backend: ...

Webhook signature verification and CORS get mixed up all the time, usually in bad ways. The short version: webhook verification with HMAC should almost always happen server-side, and CORS is only relevant if a browser is calling your verification endpoint. A webhook provider like GitHub, Stripe, or Slack is not a browser. It does not care about Access-Control-Allow-Origin. That distinction saves a lot of confusion. The mental model There are really two separate flows: ...

Webhook security and CORS get mixed together all the time, and that usually leads to one of two bad outcomes: people add CORS headers to webhook endpoints that never needed them people assume CORS protects webhook endpoints from abuse It does neither. Here’s the blunt version: CORS is a browser policy, not an authentication system, not an origin firewall, and definitely not webhook verification. If your payment provider, GitHub app, or internal service is sending server-to-server webhooks, CORS is usually irrelevant. ...