Svix
Managed outbound webhook sending with retries, signing, logs and a customer-facing portal.
The core loop here is genuinely small: accept an event, look up subscribed endpoints, sign the payload, POST it, retry on failure with backoff, log the attempt. An agent will produce that in a session, and for a single product sending a few thousand events a day it will work fine. What does not fall out of a one-shot is the boring half: a queue that survives restarts, per-endpoint rate limiting and circuit breaking so one dead customer does not poison your worker pool, replay and manual retry tooling, a portal your customers can log into, and signature schemes that third-party libraries already understand. Svix is also open source, which means the honest DIY move is often self-hosting theirs rather than writing your own. Call it a weekend for something you would actually put in front of paying users, and understand that you are now on call for it.
Build verification: not recorded. How we judge buildability
What you give up
- A customer-facing portal where your users manage their own endpoints and see failures
- Battle-tested signature format that existing verification libraries accept out of the box
- Per-endpoint circuit breaking and rate limiting so one slow consumer does not stall everyone
- Operational maturity: dead-letter handling, replay windows, throughput under a spike
- Someone else being paged when delivery breaks at 3am
Why people still pay
Webhook delivery is a system where the failure modes are all in the tail: the customer whose endpoint returns 200 but drops the body, the one that goes down for six hours, the traffic spike that queues fifty thousand deliveries behind one timeout. Writing the happy path takes an afternoon. Discovering and handling those tails takes months of production traffic you have not had yet. Teams pay so that outbound webhooks stop being a thing they think about, and so that when a customer complains about a missed event there is a searchable log and a replay button instead of a grep through application logs.
Your build guide
The stack, security requirements, and agent rules for a focused replacement.
Before you start
- Node, PostgreSQL, Redis, owner-managed signing secrets and explicitly approved public HTTPS receiver endpoints. Configure queue persistence, network egress policy and request timeouts.
- Implementation components: Node.js, TypeScript and Fastify for authenticated webhook management and message ingestion. PostgreSQL/Drizzle for events and attempt receipts, BullMQ/Redis for delivery scheduling and Node crypto for documented HMAC signatures.
- Scope boundary: Global delivery infrastructure and exactly-once receiver processing are not promised.
Use these project rules and optional skill references alongside the prompt. Review each skill before adding it to your agent; the AGENTS.md export includes the same guidance.
Optional external skill: supabase-postgres-best-practices — Review PostgreSQL schemas, queries, indexes, pooling, concurrency and row-level security. Review its instructions and compatibility before use; it does not grant deployment, data-access or publication permission.
Optional external skill: sharp-edges — Review security-sensitive APIs and configuration for dangerous defaults and easy-to-misuse interfaces. Review its instructions and compatibility before use; it does not grant deployment, data-access or publication permission.
Project rule — data model: applications, endpoints, signing keys, immutable events, delivery attempts and retry schedules
Project rule — preserve this invariant: Protect against SSRF on every resolution/redirect; retries preserve event identity and signatures bind the exact payload bytes and timestamp.
Project rule — acceptance evidence: An endpoint returning 500 retries with backoff while a successful endpoint is not resent; key rotation accepts a documented overlap window and blocks private-network targets.
Implementation plan
Phase 1
Scope and fixtures. Implement this bounded workflow: Accept an authenticated event, fan it out to approved HTTPS endpoints and sign each attempt with a documented timestamped HMAC format. Show attempt logs, backoff, disabled endpoints and manual replay with clear semantics. Record prerequisites, select representative user-owned fixtures and document the unsupported features: Global delivery infrastructure and exactly-once receiver processing are not promised.
Phase 2
Durable model. Model applications, endpoints, signing keys, immutable events, delivery attempts and retry schedules Add migrations or a versioned document format, explicit validation, stable IDs and a visible import-error report. Preserve this rule: Protect against SSRF on every resolution/redirect; retries preserve event identity and signatures bind the exact payload bytes and timestamp.
Phase 3
Complete the first useful path. Implement the workflow's input, review and output interface, with clear controls and explicit empty/error states. Commit the immutable event, approved endpoint snapshot and pending delivery outbox in one PostgreSQL transaction before acknowledging intake. A dispatcher enqueues stable delivery IDs into BullMQ and records the handoff; reconcile a crash between enqueue and marking dispatched without creating a new logical delivery. Lease attempts, save receipts, back off bounded transient failures and retain ambiguous receiver outcomes for explicit review. Failed Redis access leaves authoritative pending deliveries in PostgreSQL for later dispatch.
Phase 4
Permissions and integration failure. Authorize management and ingestion with separate scoped credentials; protect cookie-authenticated administration against CSRF. Validate destinations on resolution and redirects, reject private-network targets and sign exact payload bytes with timestamped endpoint keys. Redact payloads, keys and response excerpts before diagnostics. Request integration credentials and permissions only for the enabled feature; show a disconnected state instead of mock results.
Phase 5
Portable handoff. Back up authoritative PostgreSQL event/attempt/endpoint records with separately protected signing keys. Rebuild pending queue jobs from durable delivery state after Redis loss and reconcile in-flight attempts; never treat a recovered queue as proof of exactly-once receiver processing. Include setup, operating limits, fixture walkthrough and shutdown/restart instructions in the README.
Phase 6
Acceptance scenarios. An endpoint returning 500 retries with backoff while a successful endpoint is not resent; key rotation accepts a documented overlap window and blocks private-network targets. Repeat the workflow after restart and with a denied permission or unavailable dependency; show recoverable failure rather than a success placeholder.
WORKING SLICE Accept an authenticated event, fan it out to approved HTTPS endpoints and sign each attempt with a documented timestamped HMAC format. Show attempt logs, backoff, disabled endpoints and manual replay with clear semantics. Build this scoped Svix-inspired workflow with a documented data model and visible failure states. Architecture - Node.js, TypeScript and Fastify for authenticated webhook management and message ingestion. - PostgreSQL/Drizzle for events and attempt receipts, BullMQ/Redis for delivery scheduling and Node crypto for documented HMAC signatures. Prerequisites and limits Node, PostgreSQL, Redis, owner-managed signing secrets and explicitly approved public HTTPS receiver endpoints. Configure queue persistence, network egress policy and request timeouts. Outside this release: Global delivery infrastructure and exactly-once receiver processing are not promised. Data model and correctness applications, endpoints, signing keys, immutable events, delivery attempts and retry schedules Invariant: Protect against SSRF on every resolution/redirect; retries preserve event identity and signatures bind the exact payload bytes and timestamp. Commit the immutable event, approved endpoint snapshot and pending delivery outbox in one PostgreSQL transaction before acknowledging intake. A dispatcher enqueues stable delivery IDs into BullMQ and records the handoff; reconcile a crash between enqueue and marking dispatched without creating a new logical delivery. Lease attempts, save receipts, back off bounded transient failures and retain ambiguous receiver outcomes for explicit review. Failed Redis access leaves authoritative pending deliveries in PostgreSQL for later dispatch. Security and privacy Authorize management and ingestion with separate scoped credentials; protect cookie-authenticated administration against CSRF. Validate destinations on resolution and redirects, reject private-network targets and sign exact payload bytes with timestamped endpoint keys. Redact payloads, keys and response excerpts before diagnostics. Recovery and export Back up authoritative PostgreSQL event/attempt/endpoint records with separately protected signing keys. Rebuild pending queue jobs from durable delivery state after Redis loss and reconcile in-flight attempts; never treat a recovered queue as proof of exactly-once receiver processing. Implementation order 1. Phase 1 — Scope and fixtures. Implement this bounded workflow: Accept an authenticated event, fan it out to approved HTTPS endpoints and sign each attempt with a documented timestamped HMAC format. Show attempt logs, backoff, disabled endpoints and manual replay with clear semantics. Record prerequisites, select representative user-owned fixtures and document the unsupported features: Global delivery infrastructure and exactly-once receiver processing are not promised. 2. Phase 2 — Durable model. Model applications, endpoints, signing keys, immutable events, delivery attempts and retry schedules Add migrations or a versioned document format, explicit validation, stable IDs and a visible import-error report. Preserve this rule: Protect against SSRF on every resolution/redirect; retries preserve event identity and signatures bind the exact payload bytes and timestamp. 3. Phase 3 — Complete the first useful path. Implement the workflow's input, review and output interface, with clear controls and explicit empty/error states. Commit the immutable event, approved endpoint snapshot and pending delivery outbox in one PostgreSQL transaction before acknowledging intake. A dispatcher enqueues stable delivery IDs into BullMQ and records the handoff; reconcile a crash between enqueue and marking dispatched without creating a new logical delivery. Lease attempts, save receipts, back off bounded transient failures and retain ambiguous receiver outcomes for explicit review. Failed Redis access leaves authoritative pending deliveries in PostgreSQL for later dispatch. 4. Phase 4 — Permissions and integration failure. Authorize management and ingestion with separate scoped credentials; protect cookie-authenticated administration against CSRF. Validate destinations on resolution and redirects, reject private-network targets and sign exact payload bytes with timestamped endpoint keys. Redact payloads, keys and response excerpts before diagnostics. Request integration credentials and permissions only for the enabled feature; show a disconnected state instead of mock results. 5. Phase 5 — Portable handoff. Back up authoritative PostgreSQL event/attempt/endpoint records with separately protected signing keys. Rebuild pending queue jobs from durable delivery state after Redis loss and reconcile in-flight attempts; never treat a recovered queue as proof of exactly-once receiver processing. Include setup, operating limits, fixture walkthrough and shutdown/restart instructions in the README. 6. Phase 6 — Acceptance scenarios. An endpoint returning 500 retries with backoff while a successful endpoint is not resent; key rotation accepts a documented overlap window and blocks private-network targets. Repeat the workflow after restart and with a denied permission or unavailable dependency; show recoverable failure rather than a success placeholder. Acceptance An endpoint returning 500 retries with backoff while a successful endpoint is not resent; key rotation accepts a documented overlap window and blocks private-network targets. Use real source data or clearly labeled fixtures. Explain unsupported input and provider failures; do not fabricate analytics, delivery receipts, accuracy claims or security guarantees. Optional agent guidance Optional external skill: [supabase-postgres-best-practices](https://github.com/supabase/agent-skills/blob/main/skills/supabase-postgres-best-practices/SKILL.md) — Review PostgreSQL schemas, queries, indexes, pooling, concurrency and row-level security. Review its instructions and compatibility before use; it does not grant deployment, data-access or publication permission. Optional external skill: [sharp-edges](https://github.com/trailofbits/skills/blob/main/plugins/sharp-edges/skills/sharp-edges/SKILL.md) — Review security-sensitive APIs and configuration for dangerous defaults and easy-to-misuse interfaces. Review its instructions and compatibility before use; it does not grant deployment, data-access or publication permission. Project rule — data model: applications, endpoints, signing keys, immutable events, delivery attempts and retry schedules Project rule — preserve this invariant: Protect against SSRF on every resolution/redirect; retries preserve event identity and signatures bind the exact payload bytes and timestamp. Project rule — acceptance evidence: An endpoint returning 500 retries with backoff while a successful endpoint is not resent; key rotation accepts a documented overlap window and blocks private-network targets.
$ open in your agent (prompt prefilled, you press enter), copy the prompt or copy or download AGENTS.md · generated from this app's build plan
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Questions about Svix
Can you build your own Svix with AI?
Partly. The core loop here is genuinely small: accept an event, look up subscribed endpoints, sign the payload, POST it, retry on failure with backoff, log the attempt. An agent will produce that in a session, and for a single product sending a few thousand events a day it will work fine. What does not fall out of a one-shot is the boring half: a queue that survives restarts, per-endpoint rate limiting and circuit breaking so one dead customer does not poison your worker pool, replay and manual retry tooling, a portal your customers can log into, and signature schemes that third-party libraries already understand. Svix is also open source, which means the honest DIY move is often self-hosting theirs rather than writing your own. Call it a weekend for something you would actually put in front of paying users, and understand that you are now on call for it.
What does the Svix build prompt cover?
The prompt starts with this scope: Accept an authenticated event, fan it out to approved HTTPS endpoints and sign each attempt with a documented timestamped HMAC format. Show attempt logs, backoff, disabled endpoints and manual replay with clear semantics. Full-product capabilities excluded from the comparison include: A customer-facing portal where your users manage their own endpoints and see failures; Battle-tested signature format that existing verification libraries accept out of the box; Per-endpoint circuit breaking and rate limiting so one slow consumer does not stall everyone. Follow the implementation plan and its prerequisites before expanding the build.
How do I use the prompt, AGENTS.md and agent skills?
Start with the Svix prerequisites and stack, then copy the prompt into your coding agent. Save the project rules as AGENTS.md in the project root. Linked skills are optional packages or source instructions for specific tasks; review their current contents and install only those matching the chosen stack. A skill does not supply API credentials or verify the finished app.
How long will this Svix project take?
The catalogue estimate is a weekend for the limited scope. Setup, integration approvals, debugging, deployment and ongoing maintenance can add time. This is an estimate, not a delivery guarantee.
What would I give up by replacing Svix?
A customer-facing portal where your users manage their own endpoints and see failures; Battle-tested signature format that existing verification libraries accept out of the box; Per-endpoint circuit breaking and rate limiting so one slow consumer does not stall everyone; Operational maturity: dead-letter handling, replay windows, throughput under a spike; Someone else being paged when delivery breaks at 3am. Webhook delivery is a system where the failure modes are all in the tail: the customer whose endpoint returns 200 but drops the body, the one that goes down for six hours, the traffic spike that queues fifty thousand deliveries behind one timeout. Writing the happy path takes an afternoon. Discovering and handling those tails takes months of production traffic you have not had yet. Teams pay so that outbound webhooks stop being a thing they think about, and so that when a customer complains about a missed event there is a searchable log and a replay button instead of a grep through application logs.
What price is this guide comparing against?
The recorded Professional plan is $490/mo (monthly flat plus usage overage), checked 2026-08-18. Check the linked pricing source before buying. Building your own also has hosting, API and maintenance costs; the recorded amount is not a guaranteed saving.
What can I use instead of building Svix?
No alternative is listed in this entry yet. That is a gap in this catalogue, not proof that no suitable product exists. Compare the paid product and the proposed scope before committing to a build.