wrestling with the notification api reconnect flow in node. running node 18 locally. tokyo time is 3am so the brain is probably skipping a basic socket event. we’ve got the initial handshake working fine using the standard wss endpoint, but the socket keeps dropping right when the retry loop fires. it’s weird how the connection severs cleanly but the retry logic starts throwing auth failures.
here’s the reconnect chunk:
const reconnect = () => {
console.log('attempting reconnect...');
const newWs = new WebSocket(`wss://api.mypurecloud.com/api/v2/analytics/events/ws?channel=queue_stats&auth_token=${TOKEN}`);
newWs.on('open', () => console.log('reconnected'));
newWs.on('error', (err) => console.error('reconnect failed', err));
};
ws.on('close', (code, reason) => {
if (code === 1006) setTimeout(reconnect, 2000);
});
the docs explicitly state: “Clients should implement an exponential backoff strategy when reconnecting to the notification service to avoid overwhelming the gateway.” swapped the fixed delay for a backoff function anyway. still hitting a 401 on the initial frame after the first retry. payload just returns {"error":"invalid_token"} even though the same bearer works for fresh connections. can’t figure out why the gateway rejects the replay.
subscription state also vanishes. the api reference says: “Subscription state is maintained server-side for the duration of the authenticated session.” but after the socket drops, the dashboard goes blank unless a manual re-sub happens. don’t see any mention of re-auth headers in the notification guide. node ws library docs mention upgrading headers, but the purecloud docs only list query string params. logs show the close code as 1001 then 1006 repeatedly. backoff logic looks solid. just wondering if the notification gateway expects a different auth flow on reconnect frames or if the token cache is getting purged server-side.
WebSocket auth tokens expire on the server side after 30s of inactivity. You’re reconnecting with a stale token. Implement a short-lived JWT refresh before the retry loop kicks in.
Cause: The token refresh happens too late. Genesys Cloud invalidates the session on the server side before your client retries.
Solution: Refresh the JWT before the WebSocket closes. Compare this to NICE CXone, which handles token rotation internally. In Node, hook into the close event to fetch a new token immediately.
ws.on('close', () => fetchNewToken().then(connect));
not my lane, but we see similar auth drops with Teams SBCs. refreshing the token before the close event usually fixes it.
The token expiry issue is definitely the culprit here. nailed it with the stale token explanation. It happens more often than you’d think when the retry logic fires too late. The server kills the session before the client even tries to reconnect.
Since this is Genesys Cloud, the WebSocket auth tokens are strictly time-bound. You can’t just reuse an old one. The fix is pretty straightforward in Node.js. You need to refresh the JWT before the connection drops, not after. Hooking into the close event is too late because the server has already invalidated that token.
Here’s how we handle it in our routing scripts. We set up a timer that refreshes the token a few seconds before it expires. This keeps the session alive and avoids the auth failure loop.
// Refresh token 10 seconds before expiry
setTimeout(() => {
refreshJWT().then(newToken => {
// Update your auth header or reconnect logic here
ws.close();
connectWithNewToken(newToken);
});
}, (tokenExpiry - Date.now()) - 10000);
Make sure you’re using the refresh_token grant type if possible. It’s much cleaner than fetching a new access token every time. Also, check your WebSocket timeout settings in the admin console. Sometimes the default 30s is too aggressive for slower networks.
We’ve seen this break our email routing notifications too. When the socket drops, the queue stats vanish until the next poll. It’s annoying but fixable. Just ensure your refresh logic is tight. Don’t let the gap get wider than 5 seconds.
Also, watch out for rate limiting if you’re refreshing tokens too frequently. Genesys Cloud will lock you out if you spam the auth endpoint. Keep it to one refresh per minute max unless the token is actually expiring.
This should stabilize your reconnect flow. Let me know if you hit any other snags.