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API development

How to Use Webhooks for a Live Stream

A practical guide to live-stream webhooks: configure callbacks, verify requests, process lifecycle events, handle retries safely, and test Mux or Twitch integrations.

By DocumentaryTube Team 6 min read
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Use a webhook to have a streaming provider send your application an HTTP POST when a live-stream event occurs. Your server can verify the request, update stream status, and queue follow-up work without repeatedly polling an API. The exact event names, signature checks, callback requirements, and retry behavior depend on the provider: Mux and Twitch EventSub, for example, do not share one webhook protocol.

What a live-stream webhook does

A webhook is an HTTP callback sent by a service when an asynchronous event happens. In a streaming application, the provider sends an event to a configured server URL; your app can use it to update a database, change a viewer-facing status, or start other work. This is event-driven notification rather than repeated API polling. Mux specifically recommends webhooks for tracking asset status rather than polling its Asset API, but that advice should not be generalized into identical handling for every live-stream state.

Start with the documentation for the provider you actually use: Mux’s webhook guide and Mux’s live-streaming guide describe one provider’s model. Twitch EventSub has its own callback and authentication rules.

Set up the callback and event handling

  1. Choose the provider and events. Decide which changes your app needs to react to, such as a stream becoming playable or an encoder disconnecting. Keep live-stream lifecycle events separate from upload and asset-processing events.
  2. Create a reachable HTTPS route. Configure the callback URL in the provider’s dashboard or API. For Mux, webhook endpoints are scoped to an environment, so the endpoint and live-stream resources must belong to the same environment.
  3. Save the signing secret securely. Verify incoming requests using the provider’s documented signature method before trusting their contents. Mux’s Webhooks API returns the signing secret when an endpoint is created; it is not returned by later list or retrieve calls. Save it at creation. Mux API access requires System permissions: reads use system:read, while create, update, and delete use system:write. See Mux’s webhook management guide.
  4. Parse and deduplicate events. Validate the event shape and use the provider’s event or message ID to identify repeated delivery. Apply state changes idempotently so processing the same event more than once does not cause incorrect transitions or repeat side effects.
  5. Acknowledge promptly; do slow work asynchronously. Verify and record or enqueue the event, return a successful response, then perform longer database, notification, or media tasks in a worker. Avoid holding the provider’s request open while doing slow work.
  6. Test before production. Exercise verification challenges where applicable, valid notifications, invalid signatures, errors, retries, and duplicate events. Configure and verify the production callback separately from local testing.

Interpret Mux live-stream events by state

Mux’s event names represent different points in a stream’s lifecycle. Do not treat every connection change as a viewer-ready start or final end.

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Mux event Meaning and application use
video.live_stream.created The live-stream resource was created; this does not mean an encoder is sending video.
video.live_stream.connected The encoder connected.
video.live_stream.recording Mux processed initial frames and recording started.
video.live_stream.active The stream is playable. Before it becomes active, an HLS playback request may return HTTP 412.
video.live_stream.disconnected The encoder disconnected, but the stream remains active during its reconnect window. Do not announce a definitive end solely from this event.
video.live_stream.idle The reconnect window expired and the stream status moved to idle.

For a multi-destination broadcast, Mux also emits target-specific events, including video.live_stream.simulcast_target.broadcasting and video.live_stream.simulcast_target.errored. These can support separate destination statuses in your app. Refer to the Mux event guide and Mux webhook reference for the provider’s current event definitions.

Secure and reliable delivery

Verify the provider’s signature

Webhook URLs are reachable over the public internet, so do not trust a request merely because it has the expected JSON fields. Verify its signature according to the provider’s specification, preserve the raw request body when the signature scheme requires it, and compare signatures in a time-safe way.

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Twitch EventSub’s documented scheme is specific to Twitch: calculate HMAC-SHA256 with the subscription secret over the message ID, message timestamp, and raw request body concatenated in that order. Return a 4XX response when validation fails. Do not apply this formula as if it were Mux’s signature format. See Twitch’s EventSub handler guide.

Meet callback and response requirements

Twitch requires an SSL callback listening on port 443. When a subscription is created, Twitch first sends a webhook_callback_verification message; respond with HTTP 200 and the raw challenge string as the response body. Acknowledge notifications within a few seconds. If processing needs longer, put the event in temporary storage or a queue, return 2XX, and continue asynchronously. Twitch may revoke a subscription after too many slow responses.

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Mux gives an individual delivery attempt 5 seconds before timeout. Unsuccessful deliveries are retried over the next 24 hours with increasing delay, and duplicate deliveries can occur even after a 2XX response. These are Mux-specific documented behaviors, not universal webhook guarantees. In either integration, design for retries and duplicates rather than assuming exactly-once delivery. See the Mux webhook guide and Twitch handler guide.

Test locally, then verify production delivery

Mux’s CLI can forward events to a local endpoint, replay events retained from listen sessions, and trigger synthetic events without creating real resources. The documentation describes forwarding as a local-development tool with no delivery guarantees; configure a Dashboard endpoint for production. A tunnel such as ngrok can expose a local route for testing. Twitch’s CLI can test challenge and notification handling. A successful local test is not proof that the production callback is configured or receiving events.

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How Mux and Twitch differ

Implementation concern Mux Twitch EventSub
Events Includes live-stream lifecycle and simulcast-target events; endpoints are environment-scoped. Uses EventSub message types including callback verification, notifications, and revocations.
Callback requirements Configure a webhook endpoint for the matching environment. Callback must use SSL and listen on port 443.
Authentication and verification Use Mux’s documented signing scheme and endpoint secret. Use Twitch’s HMAC-SHA256 scheme over message ID, timestamp, and raw body; answer the verification challenge as specified.
Delivery behavior 5-second attempt timeout; unsuccessful deliveries retried over 24 hours with increasing delay; duplicates can occur after success. Prompt acknowledgements are required; repeated slow responses can lead to subscription revocation.
Development tools CLI forwarding, replay, and synthetic events; local forwarding has no production delivery guarantee. CLI can test challenge and notification handling.

These differences make a generic “webhook handler” recipe insufficient by itself. Implement lifecycle meaning, verification, acknowledgement, retry handling, and local testing against the selected provider’s current documentation.

Common problems and fixes

  • The app reports a stream live too early: distinguish resource creation, encoder connection, recording, and playable/active states. For Mux, use video.live_stream.active for playability rather than treating connected as equivalent.
  • A brief disconnect appears as a final stream end: Mux’s disconnected state remains within the reconnect window. Wait for the lifecycle transition to idle before treating it as ended.
  • A provider retries an event or your handler repeats an action: persist event IDs and make state updates and downstream effects idempotent. A 2XX does not establish exactly-once processing.
  • Signature verification fails unexpectedly: retain the raw body if the provider requires it, use the correct provider-specific field order and secret, and do not verify a reserialized JSON body in place of the original bytes.
  • The provider times out or revokes a callback: keep synchronous work short, persist or enqueue validated events, and return the required acknowledgement promptly.
  • Local tests work but production receives nothing: verify that the production endpoint is configured in the correct provider environment and that the public HTTPS route is reachable. Mux CLI forwarding is for local development and has no delivery guarantees.
  • A Twitch subscription never becomes active: check port 443 and SSL reachability, then ensure the verification route responds with HTTP 200 and the raw challenge body.

Or let it run in the cloud

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