> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://bobprince.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# How It Works

> The capture, store, forward, and retry flow explained

Hookdrop sits between your webhook provider and your server:

```
Provider (Stripe, GitHub, …) → Hookdrop → Your server
```

When an event arrives, Hookdrop handles it in six phases — so your server can be slow, restarting, or temporarily down without losing a single event.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Capture">
    The event hits your permanent Hookdrop URL. Hookdrop saves it immediately and returns `200 OK` to the sender in under 50ms.

    <Note>
      Most webhook providers treat a slow or missing response as a failed delivery and start retrying — sometimes within seconds. By responding instantly, Hookdrop prevents the sender from firing duplicate events before your server has had a chance to process the first one.
    </Note>
  </Step>

  <Step title="Store">
    The full event — headers, body, source IP, and timestamp — is persisted to durable storage. It stays there for the duration of your plan's retention period, so you can inspect or replay it at any time.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Forward">
    Hookdrop forwards the event to every destination configured on your endpoint. Each delivery attempt has a 10-second timeout. You can add multiple destinations — for example, your local dev server and your staging environment at the same time.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Retry">
    If your server returns an error or doesn't respond in time, Hookdrop retries automatically using exponential backoff:

    | Attempt         | Delay                        |
    | --------------- | ---------------------------- |
    | Initial attempt | Immediately on event capture |
    | 1st retry       | 5 seconds after failure      |
    | 2nd retry       | \~25 seconds after 1st retry |
    | 3rd retry       | \~2 minutes after 2nd retry  |
    | 4th retry       | \~10 minutes after 3rd retry |

    After 4 failed retries, the event moves to the dead letter queue and you receive an email alert.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Audit">
    Every delivery attempt is logged with the response code, response body, and timestamp. You get a complete audit trail for every event — useful for debugging failures and confirming delivery.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Replay">
    At any point, you can replay any event to any destination with one click. This works regardless of the original delivery outcome, and you can replay to a different destination than the original — useful when testing a new server or recovering from an outage.
  </Step>
</Steps>