Webhooks

Selgeo sends real-time HTTP POST notifications to your server when events occur in your account. Use webhooks to automate workflows such as provisioning access when a partner is approved, syncing commissions to your accounting system, or alerting your team about fraud.

All webhook payloads use API version v1.

Endpoint registration

Click Add endpoint.
Enter the URL where you want to receive events. All endpoints — test and live — must use HTTPS and resolve to a publicly reachable host. To receive test-mode webhooks during local development, expose your local server through a tunnel such as ngrok and register the tunnel's HTTPS URL.
Select the events you want to subscribe to.
Click Create. Your signing secret (whsec_...) is displayed once — copy it and store it securely.

You can register up to 10 endpoints per mode (test and live separately).

Test pings

After creating an endpoint, use the Send test ping button to verify connectivity. The ping sends a webhook.test event to your URL and reports the HTTP status code.

Rotating secrets

If your signing secret is compromised, use the Rotate secret action on the endpoint. This generates a new secret immediately — the old one stops working. Update your verification code before rotating.

Signature verification

Every webhook request includes an X-Selgeo-Signature header with the format:

t=<unix_timestamp>,v1=<hmac_hex>

The HMAC is computed as HMAC-SHA256(signing_secret_bytes, "<timestamp>.<raw_json_body>"). The signing secret has a whsec_ prefix followed by 64 hex characters. Strip the prefix and hex-decode to get the 32-byte key.

Verify BOTH the signature AND the timestamp

Your endpoint MUST reject requests that fail either check:

HMAC signature must match the header's v1=<hmac> value (use a constant-time comparison).
Timestamp must be recent — reject if now - t > 300 seconds or t - now > 30 seconds.

The signature alone proves the payload came from Selgeo, but it does not prove the request is fresh. Without the timestamp check, anyone who intercepts a single valid webhook (via a misconfigured proxy, log file, or any other capture point between Selgeo and your server) can replay it indefinitely — the HMAC stays valid forever.

Replay protection

The signature header embeds a Unix timestamp (t=<ts>) that is part of the HMAC input, so attackers cannot change the timestamp without invalidating the signature. Your responsibility is to enforce a freshness window:

Reject when now - t > 300 seconds (5 minutes). This is the industry-standard window (Stripe, Svix, GitHub).
Reject when t - now > 30 seconds. Small forward tolerance covers clock skew between Selgeo servers and your receiver.

Selgeo delivers most events within seconds of the originating action. A 5-minute window gives plenty of headroom for retries, queue delays, and load spikes while keeping the replay window small.

The verification examples below include this check. Do not remove it when you adapt them to your stack.

Verification examples

Node.js
Python
PHP

import crypto from 'node:crypto';

function verifyWebhookSignature(signingSecret, signatureHeader, rawBody) {
  if (!signatureHeader) {
    return false;
  }

  // Strip the whsec_ prefix and hex-decode to get raw key bytes
  const rawSecret = signingSecret.replace(/^whsec_/, '');
  const secretBytes = Buffer.from(rawSecret, 'hex');

  // Parse the header: t=<ts>,v1=<hmac>
  const parts = Object.fromEntries(
    signatureHeader.split(',').map((part) => {
      return part.split('=', 2);
    })
  );

  const timestamp = parts.t;
  const receivedHmac = parts.v1;

  if (!timestamp || !receivedHmac) {
    return false;
  }

  // Reject timestamps older than 5 minutes or in the future (with 30s tolerance)
  const age = Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000) - parseInt(timestamp, 10);
  if (age > 300 || age < -30) {
    return false;
  }

  // Compute the expected HMAC
  const expectedHmac = crypto
    .createHmac('sha256', secretBytes)
    .update(`${timestamp}.${rawBody}`)
    .digest('hex');

  // Constant-time comparison (buffers must be the same length)
  const receivedBuf = Buffer.from(receivedHmac, 'hex');
  const expectedBuf = Buffer.from(expectedHmac, 'hex');
  if (receivedBuf.length !== expectedBuf.length) {
    return false;
  }
  return crypto.timingSafeEqual(receivedBuf, expectedBuf);
}

// Usage in an Express handler
app.post('/webhooks/selgeo', express.raw({ type: 'application/json' }), (req, res) => {
  const signature = req.headers['x-selgeo-signature'];
  const rawBody = req.body.toString();

  if (!verifyWebhookSignature('whsec_YOUR_SIGNING_SECRET', signature, rawBody)) {
    return res.status(401).send('Invalid signature');
  }

  const event = JSON.parse(rawBody);
  console.log('Received event:', event.event_name);

  // Process the event...

  res.status(200).send('OK');
});

import hashlib
import hmac
import time

def verify_webhook_signature(signing_secret: str, signature_header: str, raw_body: str) -> bool:
    if not signature_header:
        return False

    # Strip the whsec_ prefix and hex-decode to get raw key bytes
    raw_secret = signing_secret.removeprefix("whsec_")
    secret_bytes = bytes.fromhex(raw_secret)

    # Parse the header: t=<ts>,v1=<hmac>
    try:
        parts = dict(part.split("=", 1) for part in signature_header.split(","))
    except ValueError:
        return False

    timestamp = parts.get("t")
    received_hmac = parts.get("v1")

    if not timestamp or not received_hmac:
        return False

    # Reject timestamps older than 5 minutes or in the future (with 30s tolerance)
    try:
        age = int(time.time()) - int(timestamp)
    except ValueError:
        return False
    if age > 300 or age < -30:
        return False

    # Compute the expected HMAC
    message = f"{timestamp}.{raw_body}".encode()
    expected_hmac = hmac.new(secret_bytes, message, hashlib.sha256).hexdigest()

    # Constant-time comparison
    return hmac.compare_digest(received_hmac, expected_hmac)


# Usage in a Flask handler
@app.route("/webhooks/selgeo", methods=["POST"])
def handle_webhook():
    signature = request.headers.get("X-Selgeo-Signature", "")
    raw_body = request.get_data(as_text=True)

    if not verify_webhook_signature("whsec_YOUR_SIGNING_SECRET", signature, raw_body):
        return "Invalid signature", 401

    event = request.get_json()
    print(f"Received event: {event['event_name']}")

    # Process the event...

    return "OK", 200

<?php

function verifyWebhookSignature(
    string $signingSecret,
    string $signatureHeader,
    string $rawBody
): bool {
    if ($signatureHeader === '') {
        return false;
    }

    // Strip the whsec_ prefix and hex-decode to get raw key bytes
    $rawSecret = str_starts_with($signingSecret, 'whsec_')
        ? substr($signingSecret, 6)
        : $signingSecret;
    $secretBytes = hex2bin($rawSecret);
    if ($secretBytes === false) {
        return false;
    }

    // Parse the header: t=<ts>,v1=<hmac>
    $parts = [];
    foreach (explode(',', $signatureHeader) as $part) {
        $segments = explode('=', $part, 2);
        if (count($segments) !== 2) {
            continue;
        }
        [$key, $value] = $segments;
        $parts[$key] = $value;
    }

    $timestamp = $parts['t'] ?? null;
    $receivedHmac = $parts['v1'] ?? null;

    if (!$timestamp || !$receivedHmac) {
        return false;
    }

    // Reject timestamps older than 5 minutes or in the future (with 30s tolerance)
    $age = time() - (int) $timestamp;
    if ($age > 300 || $age < -30) {
        return false;
    }

    // Compute the expected HMAC
    $expectedHmac = hash_hmac('sha256', "{$timestamp}.{$rawBody}", $secretBytes);

    // Constant-time comparison
    return hash_equals($expectedHmac, $receivedHmac);
}

// Usage
$signature = $_SERVER['HTTP_X_SELGEO_SIGNATURE'] ?? '';
$rawBody = file_get_contents('php://input');

if (!verifyWebhookSignature('whsec_YOUR_SIGNING_SECRET', $signature, $rawBody)) {
    http_response_code(401);
    echo 'Invalid signature';
    exit;
}

$event = json_decode($rawBody, true);
error_log("Received event: " . $event['event_name']);

// Process the event...

http_response_code(200);
echo 'OK';

tip

Always use the raw request body string for signature verification, not a re-serialised version of the parsed JSON. Re-serialisation can change key ordering or whitespace, which invalidates the HMAC.

Event catalogue

Every webhook payload includes these envelope fields:

Field	Type	Description
`event_id`	`string`	Unique ID for this event (nanoid, 21 chars)
`delivery_id`	`string`	Unique ID for this delivery attempt
`event_name`	`string`	Event type (see table below)
`occurred_at`	`string`	ISO 8601 timestamp
`merchant_id`	`string`	Your merchant account ID
`mode`	`"test" \| "live"`	Whether this event occurred in test or live mode
`api_version`	`"v1"`	API version

Partner events

Event	Description
`participant.created`	A new partner applied or was added to a programme
`participant.approved`	A partner was approved (manually or via auto-approval)
`participant.rejected`	A partner application was rejected
`participant.suspended`	An active partner was suspended
`participant.reinstated`	A suspended partner was reinstated
`participant.expired`	A pending application was automatically expired after the platform TTL (no merchant action)
`participant.erased`	A partner's data was erased (GDPR)
`participant.data_exported`	A partner's data was exported (GDPR)

Example: participant.approved

{
  "event_id": "evt_abc123def456ghi78",
  "delivery_id": "dlv_xyz789abc012def34",
  "event_name": "participant.approved",
  "occurred_at": "2026-03-15T10:30:00.000Z",
  "merchant_id": "mch_your_merchant_id",
  "mode": "live",
  "api_version": "v1",
  "participant_id": "prt_partner_id",
  "program_id": "prg_program_id",
  "approved_at": "2026-03-15T10:30:00.000Z"
}

Attribution events

Event	Description
`attribution.created`	A click was attributed to a partner
`attribution.converted`	An attributed click resulted in a conversion
`attribution.expired`	An attribution window expired without conversion
`attribution.duplicate_detected`	A duplicate attribution was detected

Conversion events

Event	Description
`conversion.created`	A new conversion was recorded
`conversion.fraud_detected`	Fraud was detected (self-referral or duplicate conversion)

Example: conversion.created

{
  "event_id": "evt_abc123def456ghi78",
  "delivery_id": "dlv_xyz789abc012def34",
  "event_name": "conversion.created",
  "occurred_at": "2026-03-15T14:22:00.000Z",
  "merchant_id": "mch_your_merchant_id",
  "mode": "live",
  "api_version": "v1",
  "conversion_id": "cnv_conversion_id",
  "attribution_id": "att_attribution_id",
  "participant_id": "prt_partner_id",
  "program_id": "prg_program_id",
  "amount_cents": 9900,
  "currency": "EUR",
  "conversion_scope": "first_conversion",
  "created_at": "2026-03-15T14:22:00.000Z"
}

Example: conversion.fraud_detected

{
  "event_id": "evt_abc123def456ghi78",
  "delivery_id": "dlv_xyz789abc012def34",
  "event_name": "conversion.fraud_detected",
  "occurred_at": "2026-03-15T14:25:00.000Z",
  "merchant_id": "mch_your_merchant_id",
  "mode": "live",
  "api_version": "v1",
  "fraud_type": "self_referral",
  "program_id": "prg_program_id",
  "program_name": "My SaaS Affiliates",
  "participant_id": "prt_partner_id",
  "attribution_event_id": "att_attribution_id",
  "conversion_id": null,
  "external_transaction_id": "cs_live_abc123",
  "masked_context": "us***@example.com",
  "explanation": "Customer email matches partner email after RFC 5233 normalization",
  "detected_at": "2026-03-15T14:25:00.000Z"
}

Commission events

Event	Description
`commission.created`	A new commission was calculated
`commission.approved`	A commission was approved for payout
`commission.rejected`	A commission was rejected
`commission.hold_overridden`	A commission's hold period was overridden (approved early)
`commission.refunded`	A commission was reversed due to a refund
`commission.paid`	A commission was included in a payout (coming soon)

Example: commission.created

{
  "event_id": "evt_abc123def456ghi78",
  "delivery_id": "dlv_xyz789abc012def34",
  "event_name": "commission.created",
  "occurred_at": "2026-03-15T14:22:05.000Z",
  "merchant_id": "mch_your_merchant_id",
  "mode": "live",
  "api_version": "v1",
  "commission_id": "cms_commission_id",
  "conversion_id": "cnv_conversion_id",
  "participant_id": "prt_partner_id",
  "program_id": "prg_program_id",
  "amount_cents": 1980,
  "currency": "EUR",
  "commission_type": "percentage",
  "commission_rate": 20,
  "needs_review": false,
  "created_at": "2026-03-15T14:22:05.000Z"
}

Payout events

Event	Description
`payout.paid`	A payout was marked as paid — its commissions moved to `paid`

The remaining payout events are reserved for a future automated payout-processing feature and are not emitted yet:

Event	Description
`payout.created`	A payout batch was created (coming soon)
`payout.initiated`	A payout transfer was initiated (coming soon)
`payout.failed`	A payout transfer failed (coming soon)
`payout.retried`	A failed payout was retried (coming soon)
`payout.cancelled`	A payout was cancelled (coming soon)

Tracking events

Event	Description
`tracking_identifier.created`	A new tracking link was created for a partner

Event	Description
`promo_code.created`	A promo code was created
`promo_code.stripe_synced`	A promo code was synced to Stripe
`promo_code.deactivated`	A promo code was deactivated

Programme invite events

Event	Description
`program_invite.created`	An invite was created
`program_invite.accepted`	An invite was accepted by a partner
`program_invite.revoked`	An invite was revoked
`program_invite.expired`	An invite expired

Retry policy

If your endpoint returns a non-2xx status code or the request times out (30 seconds), Selgeo retries with exponential backoff:

Attempt	Delay after failure
1st retry	1 minute
2nd retry	2 minutes
3rd retry	4 minutes
4th retry	15 minutes

After 5 total attempts (1 initial + 4 retries), the delivery moves to the dead-letter state. Dead-lettered deliveries are visible in the merchant dashboard under the endpoint's delivery log but are not retried automatically.

Delivery statuses

Status	Meaning
`pending`	Queued for delivery
`delivered`	Your endpoint returned 2xx
`failed`	Delivery failed, retry scheduled
`dead_letter`	All retry attempts exhausted

Delivery log

Each endpoint has a delivery log in the dashboard (Settings → Webhooks → View deliveries). It shows the latest state of each event delivery — event id, event name, status, the number of attempts, the last response code, and timing — newest first, filterable by status and by event. Open a row to reveal the event payload that was sent and the last response body your endpoint returned.

Dead-lettered deliveries can be manually re-delivered from the log once you have fixed your endpoint. (Deliveries still in the automatic retry schedule — status failed — are not manually re-deliverable; they retry on their own.) The log reflects the latest state per delivery, not a per-attempt timeline, and delivery records are retained for 90 days.

Best practices

Return 200 quickly. Acknowledge receipt with a 200 status code as soon as you receive the webhook. Process the event asynchronously in a background job. Selgeo times out after 30 seconds.
Handle duplicates. Use the event_id field to deduplicate. The same event may be delivered more than once in rare cases (e.g., network timeout right after your server processed it).
Verify signatures. Always verify the X-Selgeo-Signature header. Never process unverified payloads.
Check the timestamp. Reject signatures with timestamps older than 5 minutes or too far in the future to prevent replay attacks.
Use HTTPS everywhere. All endpoints — test and live — require HTTPS on a publicly reachable host. For local development, expose your server through an HTTPS tunnel (for example, ngrok).
Monitor dead-letter deliveries. Check the delivery log in the dashboard periodically. Dead-lettered events may indicate an endpoint outage or a bug in your handler.

Endpoint registration​

Test pings​

Rotating secrets​

Signature verification​

Replay protection​

Verification examples​

Event catalogue​

Partner events​

Attribution events​

Conversion events​

Commission events​

Payout events​

Tracking events​

Promo code events​

Programme invite events​

Retry policy​

Delivery statuses​

Delivery log​

Best practices​