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AWS SNS Webhook Issues? Subscription and Validation Troubleshooting

Problem Introduction

SNS notifications are published but not reliably processed by your endpoint.

Why It Happens

  • •Subscription not confirmed
  • •Message type handling gaps
  • •Signature verification not implemented
  • •Handler latency

Step-by-Step Fix

  1. 1Ensure SNS subscription is confirmed.
  2. 2Handle SubscriptionConfirmation and Notification separately.
  3. 3Validate SNS signing/certificate flow.
  4. 4Return quick 2xx and process asynchronously.
  5. 5Publish a controlled message and trace end-to-end.

Common Mistakes

  • •Ignoring confirmation handshake
  • •Treating all message types the same
  • •No message-id dedupe

Debugging Workflow

Subscription status -> message type routing -> signature verification -> processing outcome.

Preventive Best Practices

  • •Monitor confirmation failures
  • •Track notification success by type
  • •Alert on retry anomalies

Works with webhooks and other async event systems (including AI callbacks). Instead of guessing, inspecting the exact payload and headers can help debug faster.

Try the free webhook tester

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