Webhook
A webhook is an HTTP request one system sends to another the moment something happens — an order placed, a form submitted — so the receiving system reacts immediately instead of polling for changes.
Webhooks are push; polling is pull. Push is faster and cheaper, but the sender controls delivery, which means you must handle duplicates, out-of-order arrivals and the receiver being down. Most providers retry, so your endpoint will receive the same event more than once.
A correct webhook endpoint verifies the signature, responds fast, and does the actual work asynchronously. Doing heavy processing before responding causes timeouts, which cause retries, which cause duplicates.
Why it matters
Nearly every real-time automation is webhook-driven. When something "only sometimes" fires, the cause is usually here.
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