Monitor Webhooks in Express
Debug webhook issues in real-time
The problem
Webhooks are essential but notoriously hard to debug in Express. A third-party service sends data to your endpoint. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it does not. And when it fails, you are left guessing what went wrong.
The typical debugging flow is painful: check your logs, search for the request, try to reconstruct the payload, figure out why your route handlers did not handle it correctly. If the webhook does not retry, you might lose that data entirely.
Testing webhooks locally in your Express development environment is another headache. You need tunnels, mock payloads, and a lot of patience. Production issues are even worse because you cannot easily reproduce them.
The solution
Quicklog captures every webhook payload as it arrives at your Express app. You see the full request body, headers, and any processing results. When something fails, you have the complete picture.
Create a channel for each webhook source. Stripe events go to one channel, Clerk to another. You can filter, search, and trace issues across your entire webhook infrastructure.
Add your own context too. Log what your route handlers did in response to each webhook. Now you can see not just what arrived, but what happened next. Debugging becomes tracing a clear timeline instead of hunting through scattered Express logs.
Why monitor this?
- See webhook payloads in real-time
- Debug integration issues faster
- Track processing success and failure
Quick setup
Install the SDK:
npm install @quicklog/sdkAdd tracking to your Express app:
const { Quicklog } = require('@quicklog/sdk')
const ql = new Quicklog(process.env.QUICKLOG_API_KEY)
// Monitor Webhooks
await ql.track({
channel: 'webhooks',
event: 'webhook.received',
description: 'Describe what happened',
user: {
id: user.id,
email: user.email,
name: user.name
},
metadata: {
// Add relevant context here
}
})Express tips
- Use express.raw({ type: "application/json" }) for webhook routes only
- Create a shared webhook verification middleware for signature validation
- Log raw request bodies to Quicklog before JSON parsing for debugging
Ready to monitor webhooks?
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