When you just need to inspect a webhook before writing code

Webhooks are usually discussed as something your application should process automatically.

A payment provider sends an event. A Git hosting service notifies you about a push. A SaaS product sends a status update. Your backend receives the request, verifies it, stores it, and runs the required logic.

But before all of that, there is often a much simpler step: you just need to see what the webhook actually looks like. Not the example from the documentation. Not the expected payload in your head. The real request.

What method does it use? Which headers are included? How is the body structured? Where is the event type stored? Are there signatures, timestamps, nested fields, IDs, or provider-specific details that are not obvious from the docs?

For this first step, setting up a local server can be unnecessary work.

You can use a tunneling tool, expose your local application, write a temporary handler, log the request, format the output, and then inspect the result. That works, but sometimes it is too much for a simple question: what exactly does this service send?

This is one of the scenarios where Adal can help.

Adal gives you a permanent webhook endpoint URL. You can paste that URL into the webhook settings of a service like Stripe, GitHub, Slack, Dodo Payments, or any other provider that sends webhook events.

When the webhook arrives, Adal stores the request and shows it in the interface.

You can inspect:

• HTTP method
• path
• headers
• body
• payload structure
• request size
• delivery details

This is useful before you write the real backend handler.

You can send a test webhook, inspect the actual request, compare it with the documentation, and only then decide how your application should process it.

This is also useful when debugging. Sometimes the problem is not in your handler at all. The webhook may not be reaching the expected URL. The payload may not match the event you selected. A header may be missing. A signature may be different from what you expected.

Having the raw request visible makes this much easier to understand.

This does not replace proper webhook processing. You still need your backend, validation, signature verification, retries, idempotency, and business logic for production workflows.

But before that, there is a very practical first step: receive the webhook, look at it and understand what was actually sent.

That is the small use case Adal is designed to make simple.

No temporary server just to inspect a payload. No manual log formatting. No guessing based only on documentation. Just a real incoming webhook, shown in a way that is easy to inspect before you write the code that handles it.