> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://getconvoy.io/docs/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Events and Event Deliveries ## Ingesting Events ### Payload Size Limits & Best Practices Keep webhook payloads as concise as possible (ideally under **1MB - 5MB**). Avoid sending large binary data or documents within the webhook payload itself. Instead, pass a URL or reference ID that the receiving endpoint can query to fetch the file. Large payloads sit in the queue (Redis or Postgres) and increase network IOPS, which can degrade cluster throughput. Convoy supports four different message formats to ingest webhook events into Convoy. This section will help you understand each one of them so that you can select an appropriate format for your use case. All these formats can both be ingested from the API or through any message broker. Create, broadcast, fan-out, and dynamic ingest return `uid` (the event id) in the `201` body. Use it to [retrieve the event](/docs/api-reference/events/retrieve-an-event) or [list its deliveries](/docs/api-reference/event-deliveries/list-all-event-deliveries) with `eventId`. [Get](/docs/api-reference/event-deliveries/retrieve-an-event-delivery) and [retry](/docs/api-reference/event-deliveries/retry-event-delivery) a delivery need an event delivery id from that list. Create does not return a delivery id, because deliveries are written after match. On the default path the event row appears when the worker runs, so get and list can 404 for a short time after the `201`. If you send an `idempotency_key`, list deliveries can also filter on `idempotencyKey`. ### Directed This is the most common structure for ingesting events. With this, you supply an `endpoint_id` and the `data` to push to the endpoint. This integration requires you to create the customer’s endpoint ahead of time and save the `endpoint_id` so you can use it when dispatching to Convoy. Use this [endpoint](/docs/api-reference/events/create-an-event) to ingest this structure via the API. See the full payload below. ```json Directed event example theme={null} { "custom_headers": {}, "data": {}, "endpoint_id": "{string}", "event_type": "{string}", "idempotency_key": "{string}" } ``` ### Fan-out This structure is used to fan out an event to multiple endpoints for a given tenant. It is common and best practice to enable each customer to have more than one endpoint and subscribe to specific events on each endpoint. You can use this structure to offload the task of determining which of the customers' endpoint to receive the event. All you need to supply in this structure is the `owner_id`, which represents a unique customer in your business. Use this [endpoint](/docs/api-reference/events/fan-out-an-event) to ingest this structure via the API. ```json Fanout event example theme={null} { "custom_headers": {}, "data": {}, "owner_id": "{string}", "event_type": "{string}", "idempotency_key": "{string}" } ``` ### Broadcast This one is used to broadcast one event to multiple tenants in your system. A use case for this is web3/blockchain events, where you want to broadcast a social event like `cast.created` to multiple customers. With this structure, you will specify neither `endpoint_id` nor `owner_id` and Convoy will try to dispatch the event to all endpoints except the endpoint specifically exclude itself through its subscription. Use this [endpoint](/docs/api-reference/events/create-a-broadcast-event) to ingest this structure via the API. ```json Broadcast event example theme={null} { "custom_headers": {}, "data": {}, "event_type": "{string}", "idempotency_key": "{string}" } ``` ### Dynamic This one is used to ingest and dispatch webhooks without creating endpoints ahead of time. In this mode, you’re using Convoy as a proxy to deliver webhooks. Use this [endpoint](/docs/api-reference/events/dynamic-events) to ingest this structure via the API. ```json Dynamic event example theme={null} { "url": "{endpoint_url}", "secret": "{endpoint_secret}", "data": "{data}", "event_type": "{event_type}", "event_types": ["{event_type}"], "idempotency_key": "" } ``` The `201` body still includes `uid`. Verify does not add a delivery id. #### Verifying dynamic events before accepting them By default the dynamic events endpoint queues the event and returns `201` immediately. Convoy then creates the endpoint and matches a subscription in the background, so a `201` means the event was accepted, not that it has a delivery target yet. The body still includes `uid`. This setting does not add a delivery id to the response. Set `config.verify_dynamic_events` to `true` on the project (**Project Settings › Endpoints Config › Verify Dynamic Events Before Accepting** in the dashboard) to make the request wait for that work to finish. It is `false` by default, so existing integrations are unaffected. With it enabled, the endpoint responds: * `201`: the event was accepted **and** its endpoint and subscription were resolved. * `400`: resolve failed, with the reason in the response message. See [failure reasons](#failure-reasons) for what each one means. * `504`: resolve did not finish within the instance timeout. * `503`: Convoy could not wait for the result. On `504` and `503` the event is already queued and may still resolve and deliver. Only the answer was lost, not the event. Send an `idempotency_key` if you intend to retry these, so the retry is deduplicated instead of delivered twice. > The wait is capped by the instance setting `CONVOY_VERIFY_DYNAMIC_EVENTS_TIMEOUT`, in seconds, which defaults to `30`. > Give your HTTP client a timeout longer than that value so it does not give up before Convoy answers. ## Custom Headers and Idempotency ### Custom Headers ```json Custom header example theme={null} { "event_type": "log.sampled", "data": { "foo": "bar" }, "custom_headers": { "sample-header": "sample-value" } } ``` Any key value pairs set in this object will be added as headers to the HTTP request of the webhook. > If `x-convoy-message-type` set to **broadcast**, the event will be sent to all endpoints in the project, ignoring both the `endpoint_id` and `owner_id` values. #### Overriding the outbound User-Agent Convoy sends `User-Agent: Convoy/` on every webhook it delivers. Set `User-Agent` in `custom_headers` to send your own value instead: ```json Custom User-Agent example theme={null} { "event_type": "log.sampled", "data": { "foo": "bar" }, "custom_headers": { "User-Agent": "Acme-Webhooks/1.4" } } ``` A non-empty value replaces the default entirely, so receivers see only your agent string. Empty or whitespace-only values are ignored and Convoy falls back to `Convoy/`. > Overriding the User-Agent is gated by a license entitlement (`custom_user_agent`). > On instances without it, Convoy drops the header you set and sends `Convoy/`. > See [paid features](/docs/business-and-enterprise/paid-features) for what each license includes. ### Idempotency ```json Idempotency example theme={null} { "event_type": "log.sampled", "data": { "foo": "bar" }, "custom_headers": { "sample-header": "sample-value" }, "idempotency_key": "my-unique-key" } ``` Idempotency keys are useful for deduplicating REST API calls. In Convoy, we use them to deduplicate events being sent more than once. An idempotency key can only be reused when the event bearing that key has been hard deleted after the retention policy window. > When an event with an existing idempotency key is ingested, it is created as a **duplicate** > of the former and can be seen on the dashboard, and no event delivery is created for it. ## Events Log The Events log dashboard represents all webhook events pushed to Convoy. It is a log of events published to Convoy; delivery attempts live on the event deliveries the event generated. The events log page can be accessed from the sidebar. convoy event log ### Failure reasons Most events are accepted and go on to generate event deliveries. An event that Convoy could not route at all is marked `Failure` and carries a **failure reason** explaining why, shown in the event's detail view when you select it in the log. Today these come from [dynamic events](#dynamic) that Convoy could not resolve against the project's [endpoint URL templates](/docs/product-manual/endpoints#endpoint-url-templates): | Failure reason | What it means | | ------------------------------------------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | `dynamic URL does not match any configured endpoint URL template` | The `url` you sent matches none of your templates. Add a template that covers it, send a URL an existing template matches, or set [`config.allow_unmatched_dynamic_urls`](/docs/product-manual/organizations-and-projects#allow-unmatched-dynamic-event-urls) if this project also receives plain, non-templated URLs. | | `multiple endpoint URL templates match dynamic URL` | The `url` is ambiguous, more than one template matches it. Narrow the templates so exactly one applies. | | `dynamic event URL must be concrete, not an endpoint URL template` | The `url` you sent still contains `{token}` placeholders. Send the resolved URL, with real values in place of the tokens. | > These events fail once and stay failed. Convoy does not retry them, because none of these will > resolve on their own, and there is no delivery to retry. ## Event delivery An event delivery is the combination of an endpoint and an event. For both incoming and outgoing webhooks project, an event can generate multiple event deliveries depending on the subscriptions. An event delivery can have any of the states below: * `Scheduled`: In this state, the event delivery has been enqueued to the message broker, but a worker node is yet to pick it up for delivery. * `Processing`: In this state, the event delivery has been retrieved from the message broker by a worker node, and the event is on its way out. * `Success`: In this state, the event delivery delivered successfully. Here, the `Retry` button becomes `Force Retry`. This is used to retry a successful event in case of a false positive. * `Retry`: In this state, the event delivery previously failed and the automatic retries have kicked in. Here, Convoy will continue to retry till the max attempts is reached. * `Failed`: In this state, the event delivery has reached the maximum number of automatic retries and failed to deliver the event or the endpoint failed to acknowledge delivery. Here, the `Retry` button becomes to active to trigger manual retries. * `Discarded`: In this state, the endpoint has been set to `inactive`, so Convoy did not try to process events to the endpoint at all. See [here](https://getconvoy.io/docs/product-manual/endpoints#endpoint-state) on re-activating the endpoint. Event deliveries can be viewed on the **Events Deliveries** page below: Event delivery ### Delivery insights Each event delivery records [delivery attempts](/docs/glossary/delivery-attempts) you can inspect on the details page. For every attempt Convoy captures the **URL that attempt called**, the request and response headers and payload, the HTTP status and any error, the **source IP** the request was sent from, and **requested at** / **responded at** timestamps so you can see exactly when the request left Convoy and when the endpoint replied. The delivery itself also carries a human-readable **description** of its current outcome and an end-to-end **latency**. For retried deliveries the details page shows the newest attempt as the latest attempt and lays out every attempt in a timeline. ## Debugging Event Deliveries For the most part, building a dashboard for webhooks requires building the tools for finding and solving problems easily, this requires the ability to quickly find the affected payload, application, endpoint and most importantly affected customer. There are two ways to debug events in Convoy: ### Event filtering You can filter events and event deliveries by date, time, status and endpoints respectively. convoy event filter A deliveries query that cannot finish inside the instance search timeout returns `504` with `Event deliveries took too long. Narrow the date range.` Narrow the date range, or filter by endpoint, rather than retrying the same window. ### Event search On a Business plan, the Events log search box finds events in the selected date range (default last 7 days). **Text** matches the start of an event ID, and any part of an event type, source name, or idempotency key. It does not search inside the payload. **A JSON object** filters the stored body with exact containment. Every key and value you include must match at the same path. This payload matches a top-level event name, not the same field nested under data: ```json theme={null} {"event": "invoice.paid"} ``` A nested object only matches that nested path: ```json theme={null} {"customer": {"email": "ada@example.com"}} ``` Unquoted keys and a data prefix are accepted. Mix text and JSON to require both: ``` invoice.paid {amount: 1200} data: {"currency": "NGN"} ``` Without braces, this is text search (event ID, type, source, idempotency key), not a payload filter: ``` amount: 1200 ``` Selecting a result highlights the keys and values you searched for inside the event body, so you can confirm why it matched. Batch Replay is disabled while a search is active. Event search requires a Business plan. Without it the search box is visible but disabled, tagged **Business**, and the API returns `403` for the `query` and `body` parameters. A `body` filter that is not a nonempty JSON object returns `400`. convoy event search