I am Confused About Webhooks Setup & want Advice

Question and Answers
1

Hey everyone,

I have been tinkering with the Nylas developer dashboard for a side project I am building & while most of it has been smooth sailing, I hit a bit of a wall with setting up webhooks. I followed the official docs Also i have double-checked my callback URLs & even tested them with ngrok – still no luck receiving events. :confused:

I am using Node.js on the backend & React for the frontend. I want to know if there is some tiny step I am missing or a gotcha in the dashboard settings that’s easy to overlook?

Also if anyone here has suggestions on where to brush up frontend integration techniques, I came across a reactjs course online that seemed helpful for handling API stuff on the frontend.

Anyway, if someone could drop some insight it would be grateful.

Thank you

2

I found the issue with your webhook setup - Nylas webhooks are not compatible with Ngrok because of throughput limiting concerns. This explains why your Ngrok testing isn’t working.
For webhook testing, Nylas recommends using Visual Studio Code port forwarding, Hookdeck, or a similar webhook tool instead.

Here are the key webhook setup requirements you might be missing:

Webhook Verification Requirements

Your webhook endpoint must respond to Nylas’ verification request within 10 seconds. When creating a webhook, Nylas sends a GET request with a challenge query parameter, and your application must return the exact value of the challenge parameter in the response body.

Essential Setup Steps

  1. HTTPS endpoint: Your webhook URL must direct to an HTTPS endpoint accessible from the public internet
  2. Correct scopes: Ensure you have the correct authentication scopes for your webhook subscriptions
  3. 200 response: Your application must respond with a 200 status code to prevent Nylas marking the webhook as failing or failed

Creating Webhooks with Node.js SDK

Here’s the exact code for creating a webhook:

javascript
import 'dotenv/config'
import Nylas from "nylas"

const NylasConfig = {
  apiKey: process.env.NYLAS_API_KEY,
  apiUri: process.env.NYLAS_API_URI,
}

const nylas = new Nylas(NylasConfig)

const createWebhook = async () => {
  try {
    const webhook = await nylas.webhooks.create({
      requestBody: {
        triggerTypes: [WebhookTriggers.EventCreated],
        webhookUrl: process.env.WEBHOOK_URL,
        description: "My first webhook",
        notificationEmailAddress: process.env.EMAIL,
      }
    })

    console.log("Webhook created:", webhook)
  } catch (error) {
    console.error("Error creating webhook:", error)
  }
}

createWebhook()

Testing Your Webhook

Use the Send Test Event endpoint to verify your webhook destination is configured correctly. This sends a test payload and listens for success acknowledgement.

Switch from Ngrok to VS Code port forwarding or Hookdeck, ensure your endpoint returns the challenge parameter correctly, and verify you have proper HTTPS setup - this should resolve your webhook issues.

We also have this video that one of our developers put together, which might help!