Verify X (Twitter) webhooks

Verify that a webhook really came from X (Twitter) before acting on it.


Identifier	`'twitter'`, `'x'`
Import	`import { verifyTwitter } from 'verihook/twitter'`
Headers	`x-twitter-webhooks-signature`
Signature	HMAC-SHA256 of the raw body, keyed with the consumer secret, sent as `sha256=<base64>`.
Replay window	None (the provider sends no timestamp)
`result.eventType`	the payload’s `*_events` key, e.g. `tweet_create_events`

Get your secret

Your app’s API Key Secret (consumer secret): in the X Developer Portal, open the app’s Keys and tokens.

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

Verify a request

import { verifyTwitter } from 'verihook/twitter';

export async function POST(request: Request) {
  const result = await verifyTwitter(request, process.env.TWITTER_CONSUMER_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('twitter', 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('twitter', process.env.TWITTER_CONSUMER_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/twitter', verihookExpress('twitter', process.env.TWITTER_CONSUMER_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/twitter', { preHandler: verihookFastify('twitter', process.env.TWITTER_CONSUMER_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: { TWITTER_CONSUMER_SECRET: string }; Variables: VerihookVariables }>();

app.post('/webhooks/twitter', verihookHono('twitter', (c) => c.env.TWITTER_CONSUMER_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('twitter')
  @UseGuards(createVerihookGuard('twitter', process.env.TWITTER_CONSUMER_SECRET!))
  handle(@Req() req: VerihookNestRequest) {
    const { eventType, event } = req.verihook!;
  }
}

import { createWebhookHandler } from 'verihook/h3';

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

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

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

import { createWebhookHandler } from 'verihook/remix';

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

import { createWebhookHandler } from 'verihook/astro';

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

import { createWebhookHandler } from 'verihook/lambda';

export const handler = createWebhookHandler('twitter', process.env.TWITTER_CONSUMER_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

X sends a CRC check as a GET request with a crc_token, when you register the webhook and then periodically. Answer it with verifyTwitterCrc:

import { verifyTwitterCrc } from 'verihook/twitter';

// GET /webhooks/twitter
export async function GET(request: Request) {
  const crcToken = new URL(request.url).searchParams.get('crc_token') ?? '';
  return Response.json(await verifyTwitterCrc(crcToken, process.env.TWITTER_CONSUMER_SECRET!));
}

Things to know

verifyX and verifyXCrc are aliases of the Twitter functions.

Testing

signWebhook from verihook/testing builds a correctly signed X (Twitter) request for your tests:

import { signWebhook } from 'verihook/testing';
import { verifyTwitter } from 'verihook/twitter';

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

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

From the command line, npx verihook simulate twitter --url http://localhost:3000/webhooks/twitter 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.

X (Twitter)’s webhook documentation