Our Express server keeps timing out on Genesys Cloud webhook payloads, returning a 502 Bad Gateway. The platform retries every 10 seconds. This is flooding our logs and crashing the worker. I need to implement a dead letter queue or a per retry mechanism that stops after N attempts, but the docs are light on the actual implementation details for the consumer side.
Here’s the current handler:
app.post('/webhooks/conversations', async (req, res) => {
try {
const event = req.body;
// cess logic here - takes too long sometimes
await cessConversation(event);
res.status(200).send('OK');
} catch (err) {
console.error('Webhook error:', err);
res.status(500).send('Failed');
}
});
The issue is that cessConversation hits our DB and sometimes takes 3-4 seconds. Genesys Cloud expects a response in 2 seconds. If it doesn’t get one, it retries. The retry hits the same slow DB call. Loop. Crash.
I’ve tried adding a setTimeout to force a 200 response, but then I lose the event if the cessing fails later. I can’t afford to drop data.
What’s the standard pattern here? Should I be pushing the payload to SQS immediately upon receipt (returning 200 instantly), then cessing from the queue? If so, how do I handle idempotency if Genesys retries before the SQS send completes?
Also, is there a way to configure Genesys Cloud to stop retries after a certain number of failures for a specific webhook URL? I’ve looked at the webhook settings UI but don’t see a “max retries” field. Just “retry on failure” toggle.
Need a code example that handles the 2-second timeout constraint without dropping events. Preferably in Node.js/Express. Thanks.
The 502 loop is usually a symptom of your app hanging, not just the platform being aggressive. Genesys Cloud will keep retrying until the webhook is disabled or the payload expires. You don’t need a full DLQ infrastructure if you just handle the timeout correctly on your end.
Look at your Express middleware. If the request takes longer than 30 seconds to cess, Nginx or your load balancer kills it with a 502. Genesys sees the 502 and retries. It’s a death spiral.
Here’s a pattern to break the loop. Acknowledge receipt immediately, then cess asynchronously. This gives Genesys a 200 OK instantly, stopping the retries.
const express = require('express');
const app = express();
app.post('/webhooks/conversations', express.json(), (req, res) => {
// 1. Acknowledge immediately
res.status(200).send('OK');
// 2. cess in background
cessWebhookPayload(req.body).catch(err => {
console.error('Background cessing failed:', err);
// Log to your DLQ here, e.g., send to SQS or a DB table
});
});
async function cessWebhookPayload(payload) {
// Your heavy logic here
await new mise(resolve => setTimeout(resolve, 5000)); // Simulating work
console.log('cessed:', payload.id);
}
If you really need a DLQ, just push the failed payload to a queue like Amazon SQS or a simple PostgreSQL table with a retry_count column. Don’t let the HTTP handler hold the connection open.
Also check your webhook settings in Genesys. There is a retry policy you can tweak, but fixing the consumer side is faster. If your app crashes, the webhook stays active and keeps firing. You might want to add a health check endpoint that Genesys can ping to verify your app is up before sending payloads.