Verify Meta (WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram) webhooks

Verify that a webhook really came from Meta (WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram) before acting on it.


Identifier	`'meta'`, `'whatsapp'`, `'facebook'`, `'instagram'`
Import	`import { verifyWhatsApp } from 'verihook/meta'`
Headers	`x-hub-signature-256`
Signature	HMAC-SHA256 of the raw body, keyed with the app secret, sent as `sha256=<hex>`.
Replay window	None (the provider sends no timestamp)
`result.eventType`	the body’s `object`, e.g. `whatsapp_business_account`

Get your secret

Your app’s App Secret: in the Meta App Dashboard, open App settings → Basic. The verify token used in the setup handshake is a different value that you choose.

Store it in an environment variable (META_APP_SECRET below) and never commit it.

Verify a request

import { verifyWhatsApp } from 'verihook/meta';

export async function POST(request: Request) {
  const result = await verifyWhatsApp(request, process.env.META_APP_SECRET!);

  if (!result.valid) {
    console.warn(result.code, result.reason, result.hint);
    return new Response('Invalid signature', { status: 401 });
  }

  console.log(result.eventType, result.event);
  return Response.json({ received: true });
}

request can be a Fetch Request or { headers, body, url? } with the raw body. verifyWebhook('meta', request, secret) from verihook does the same. Read why the raw body matters if verification fails behind a body parser.

Framework examples

import { createWebhookHandler } from 'verihook/next';

export const POST = createWebhookHandler('meta', process.env.META_APP_SECRET!, async (payload, result) => {
  // Runs only for a valid signature
  console.log(result.eventType, result.event);
});

import express from 'express';
import { verihookExpress, type VerihookRequestAdditions } from 'verihook/express';

const app = express();

// Register before express.json(), or keep express.json() off this route
app.post('/webhooks/meta', verihookExpress('meta', process.env.META_APP_SECRET!), (req, res) => {
  const { eventType, event } = (req as typeof req & VerihookRequestAdditions).verihook!;
  res.json({ received: true });
});

import Fastify from 'fastify';
import { verihookFastify, verihookRawBody, type VerihookFastifyRequest } from 'verihook/fastify';

const app = Fastify();
await app.register(verihookRawBody);

app.post('/webhooks/meta', { preHandler: verihookFastify('meta', process.env.META_APP_SECRET!) }, async (request) => {
  const { eventType, event } = (request as typeof request & VerihookFastifyRequest).verihook!;
  return { received: true };
});

import { Hono } from 'hono';
import { verihookHono, type VerihookVariables } from 'verihook/hono';

const app = new Hono<{ Bindings: { META_APP_SECRET: string }; Variables: VerihookVariables }>();

app.post('/webhooks/meta', verihookHono('meta', (c) => c.env.META_APP_SECRET), (c) => {
  const { eventType, event } = c.get('verihook');
  return c.json({ received: true });
});

// main.ts: NestFactory.create(AppModule, { rawBody: true })
import { Controller, Post, Req, UseGuards } from '@nestjs/common';
import { createVerihookGuard, type VerihookNestRequest } from 'verihook/nestjs';

@Controller('webhooks')
export class WebhooksController {
  @Post('meta')
  @UseGuards(createVerihookGuard('meta', process.env.META_APP_SECRET!))
  handle(@Req() req: VerihookNestRequest) {
    const { eventType, event } = req.verihook!;
  }
}

import { createWebhookHandler } from 'verihook/h3';

export default defineEventHandler(
  createWebhookHandler('meta', process.env.META_APP_SECRET!, async (payload, result) => {
    console.log(result.eventType);
  }),
);

import { env } from '$env/dynamic/private';
import { createWebhookHandler } from 'verihook/sveltekit';

export const POST = createWebhookHandler('meta', () => env.META_APP_SECRET, async (payload, result) => {
  console.log(result.eventType);
});

import { createWebhookHandler } from 'verihook/remix';

export const action = createWebhookHandler('meta', process.env.META_APP_SECRET!, async (payload, result) => {
  console.log(result.eventType);
});

import { createWebhookHandler } from 'verihook/astro';

export const prerender = false;
export const POST = createWebhookHandler('meta', import.meta.env.META_APP_SECRET, async (payload, result) => {
  console.log(result.eventType);
});

import { createWebhookHandler } from 'verihook/lambda';

export const handler = createWebhookHandler('meta', process.env.META_APP_SECRET!, async (payload, result) => {
  console.log(result.eventType);
});

Each adapter responds 401 to an invalid signature, 413 to a body over maxBodySize (2 MB by default) and 200 to a duplicate when you pass a dedupeStore.

Setup handshake

Meta checks the URL with a GET request before sending events. Answer it with verifyMetaChallenge:

import { verifyMetaChallenge } from 'verihook/meta';

// GET /webhooks/whatsapp
export function GET(request: Request) {
  const result = verifyMetaChallenge(new URL(request.url), process.env.META_VERIFY_TOKEN!);
  return result.valid
    ? new Response(result.challenge)
    : new Response('Forbidden', { status: 403 });
}

Things to know

'meta', 'whatsapp', 'facebook' and 'instagram' are the same verifier, so verifyMeta and verifyWhatsApp are interchangeable.

Testing

signWebhook from verihook/testing builds a correctly signed Meta (WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram) request for your tests:

import { signWebhook } from 'verihook/testing';
import { verifyWhatsApp } from 'verihook/meta';

const hook = await signWebhook('meta', {
  secret: 'meta_app_secret',
  payload: { id: 'evt_test' },
});

const result = await verifyWhatsApp(
  { headers: hook.headers, body: hook.body, url: hook.url },
  hook.secret,
);
// result.valid === true

From the command line, npx verihook simulate meta --url http://localhost:3000/webhooks/meta sends one to your local server.

See Testing your handlers for supertest and Fetch Request examples.

Troubleshooting

Failed results carry a code and often a hint with the likely cause. See Troubleshooting for each error code.

Meta (WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram)’s webhook documentation