# Paystack Webhooks

Paystack is an African payments platform. It notifies your application of payment
lifecycle events (charges, transfers, refunds, subscriptions, invoices, disputes)
by sending an HTTP POST webhook with a JSON payload to your endpoint.

## When to Use This Skill

* How do I receive Paystack webhooks?
* How do I verify the `x-paystack-signature` header?
* Why is my Paystack webhook signature verification failing?
* How do I handle `charge.success`, `transfer.success`, or `subscription.create` events?
* Understanding Paystack event types and payload structure

## Verification (core)

Paystack signs each webhook with HMAC-SHA512 over the raw request body,
hex-encoded, in the `x-paystack-signature` header. The key is your Paystack
secret key (`sk_test_…` / `sk_live_…`) — the same key you use for API calls.
Verify the raw body — do not `JSON.parse` before verifying.

The official Paystack SDKs are general API clients with no webhook verification
helper, so verify manually. In Node.js (Express, Next.js):

```javascript
const crypto = require('crypto');

// rawBody: the raw HTTP body as a string/Buffer (NOT parsed JSON)
// signature: value of the x-paystack-signature header
// secret: PAYSTACK_SECRET_KEY (sk_test_… / sk_live_…)
function verifyPaystackWebhook(rawBody, signature, secret) {
  if (!signature) return false;
  const expected = crypto.createHmac('sha512', secret).update(rawBody).digest('hex');
  try {
    return crypto.timingSafeEqual(Buffer.from(signature), Buffer.from(expected));
  } catch {
    return false; // length mismatch → invalid
  }
}

```

In Python (FastAPI):

```python
import hmac, hashlib
expected = hmac.new(secret.encode(), raw_body, hashlib.sha512).hexdigest()
is_valid = hmac.compare_digest(expected, signature_header)

```

> For complete handlers with route wiring, event dispatch, and tests, see:
> 
> * [examples/express/](https://github.com/hookdeck/webhook-skills/tree/main/skills/paystack-webhooks/examples/express/)
> * [examples/nextjs/](https://github.com/hookdeck/webhook-skills/tree/main/skills/paystack-webhooks/examples/nextjs/)
> * [examples/fastapi/](https://github.com/hookdeck/webhook-skills/tree/main/skills/paystack-webhooks/examples/fastapi/)

## Common Event Types

The event type is in the JSON body's `event` field (dot-separated), not a header.

| Event | Triggered When |
| --- | --- |
| `charge.success` | A payment (charge) is successful |
| `transfer.success` | A transfer to a recipient succeeds |
| `transfer.failed` | A transfer fails |
| `transfer.reversed` | A transfer is reversed |
| `refund.processed` | A refund has been completed |
| `subscription.create` | A subscription is created |
| `subscription.disable` | A subscription is disabled/cancelled |
| `invoice.create` | An invoice is created for a subscription charge |
| `invoice.update` | An invoice is updated after a charge attempt |
| `invoice.payment_failed` | A subscription invoice payment fails |
| `charge.dispute.create` | A dispute (chargeback) is opened |

> For the full event reference, see [references/overview.md](https://github.com/hookdeck/webhook-skills/blob/main/skills/paystack-webhooks/references/overview.md)
> and [Paystack's webhook docs](https://paystack.com/docs/payments/webhooks/).

## Environment Variables

```bash
PAYSTACK_SECRET_KEY=sk_test_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  # Dashboard → Settings → API Keys & Webhooks

```

The signing key is your secret key — the same `sk_test_…` / `sk_live_…` key
used for API requests. Test mode and live mode have separate keys; a signature is
valid only against the key for the mode that sent it.

## Local Development

```bash
# Start tunnel (no account needed)
npx hookdeck-cli listen 3000 paystack --path /webhooks/paystack

```

## Reference Materials

* [references/overview.md](https://github.com/hookdeck/webhook-skills/blob/main/skills/paystack-webhooks/references/overview.md) - Paystack webhook concepts, events, payload structure
* [references/setup.md](https://github.com/hookdeck/webhook-skills/blob/main/skills/paystack-webhooks/references/setup.md) - Dashboard configuration, secret key, IP allowlist, retries
* [references/verification.md](https://github.com/hookdeck/webhook-skills/blob/main/skills/paystack-webhooks/references/verification.md) - Signature verification details and gotchas