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Clerk Webhooks

How to Test Clerk Webhooks Locally (2026)

Clerk sends webhooks for user, session, and organization events so your app can stay in sync with authentication state. Clerk signs every webhook with Svix, which uses HMAC-SHA256 over a timestamped payload.

Signature Header

svix-signature

Algorithm

HMAC-SHA256 (Svix)

Setup Guide

  1. 1Create a free HookSense endpoint at hooksense.com
  2. 2Copy your unique webhook URL
  3. 3In Clerk Dashboard → Webhooks → Add Endpoint
  4. 4Paste your HookSense URL as the Endpoint URL
  5. 5Select the events you want to subscribe to (user.*, session.*, etc.)
  6. 6Copy the Signing Secret — add it to HookSense for Svix signature verification
  7. 7Trigger a test event from the Clerk dashboard or perform a signup
  8. 8Watch the webhook land in HookSense in real-time

Common Clerk Webhook Events

user.created
user.updated
user.deleted
session.created
session.ended
organization.created
organizationMembership.created
email.created

Forward to Localhost

Use HookSense CLI to forward Clerk webhooks directly to your local development server:

npx hooksense listen -p 3000 --path /api/integrations/clerk

No ngrok or tunnel setup required. Install with npm i -g hooksense or use npx.

Tips & Best Practices

  • Clerk uses Svix for signing — HookSense handles the svix-id / svix-timestamp / svix-signature trio automatically
  • Svix retries for up to 24 hours with exponential backoff — use HookSense replay to simulate retries
  • Guard user sync logic by verifying the signature before writing to your DB
  • Use HookSense search to filter by user.id or email inside payloads during onboarding QA

Related

Clerk Webhook Documentation HMAC Signature Calculator HMAC Verification Guide HookSense Documentation

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