ExtraBrain logo
Download Free
Download Free
Interview concept

How do webhooks work?

A webhook is an outbound HTTP request sent when an event occurs, allowing a subscriber to react without polling. A production webhook system needs authentication, durable delivery, bounded retries, duplicate handling, and tools to inspect or replay failures.

Download Free Browse concepts
Summary

Key takeaways

Webhooks in System Design - ExtraBrain is part of ExtraBrain's local-first Mac workflow for live interviews, meetings, transcription, provider control, and responsible AI use.

Page focus

A webhook is an outbound HTTP request sent when an event occurs, allowing a subscriber to react without polling. A production webhook system needs authentication, durable delivery, bounded retries, duplicate handling, and tools to inspect or replay failures.

Platform fact

ExtraBrain has 1 current public platform family, macOS, with support for 2 Mac CPU families: Apple Silicon and Intel.

Data-flow fact

ExtraBrain has 3 configurable data paths to review before sensitive work: local Parakeet transcription, local Gemma 4 where installed and compatible, and external providers you choose.

Interview concept

How it works

Sign every delivery

A keyed signature over the raw request body and timestamp lets the receiver verify origin and reject tampered or replayed payloads.

Deliver asynchronously

Persist the event before delivery and use workers so a slow subscriber does not delay the source transaction.

Expect duplicates

Network ambiguity and retry-after-timeout behavior make at-least-once delivery common, so each event needs a stable identifier.

Operate the pipeline

Per-endpoint backoff, dead-letter storage, delivery logs, rotation controls, and manual replay make failures recoverable.

Interview concept

Practice the tradeoffs with ExtraBrain

Design the retry path

Map event creation, worker delivery, timeout, and replay while ExtraBrain connects the visible flow to your explanation of duplicates.

Keep integration details local

The Mac-native app supports local transcription and local history for private practice with realistic endpoint and payload examples.

Audit security choices

Use compatible on-device AI or a provider you control to challenge signing and replay defenses. The free core meeting copilot captures a peer threat-model session.

Interview concept

Responsible use

Use any live AI assistant only where interview, workplace, school, and platform rules allow it. Do not use generated answers to misrepresent your skills, experience, or authorship.

FAQ

Common questions.

Short answers for people and crawlers comparing ExtraBrain with other live AI assistants.

How should webhook receivers verify a request?

Verify a timestamped signature over the exact raw body with a shared secret, use constant-time comparison, and reject timestamps outside a replay window.

Why do webhooks need idempotency?

A sender may retry after a timeout even when the first request succeeded, so receivers must safely recognize the same event again.

How should failed webhooks be retried?

Retry transient failures with exponential backoff and jitter, cap the attempt window, and move exhausted deliveries to inspectable dead-letter storage.