Payload validation

[ralyodio]

📋 Product Requirements Document

PRD: Payload validation

Issue: #156
Milestone: Phase 5: Webhook System
Labels: webhook-triggers, hacktoberfest

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PRD: Payload Validation for Webhook Triggers

1. Overview

In the continuous evolution of MeshHook's webhook system, enhancing security and operational integrity is paramount. Phase 5 introduces payload validation for webhook triggers, a critical feature designed to verify the structure and data of incoming payloads against user-defined schemas. This addition aligns with MeshHook’s objectives of delivering secure, efficient, and reliable automation workflows. It ensures that only data conforming to predefined specifications triggers workflow execution, thus reducing errors, enhancing security, and improving user experience by preemptively filtering out invalid or malicious payloads.

2. Functional Requirements

1. Schema Definition Interface: Users should be able to define and manage JSON schemas within the workflow editor. This interface must support creating, editing, and deleting schemas tied to specific webhook triggers.

2. Validation Mechanism: A robust validation mechanism will be implemented, comparing incoming webhook payloads against the corresponding JSON schemas. This process should occur before any workflow logic is executed.

3. Error Handling and Reporting: Webhook calls with payloads failing validation checks will be rejected. The system will log these events and provide detailed feedback, including the reason for rejection, to the user through the UI and API responses.

4. Schema Management API: Extend MeshHook's API to support schema management operations, enabling programmatic definition, retrieval, and deletion of payload schemas.

5. User Feedback for Validation Errors: Enhance the UI to display validation errors, offering users immediate insight into issues with incoming payloads, facilitating quick troubleshooting and resolution.

3. Non-Functional Requirements

• Performance: The validation process must be optimized to ensure minimal impact on webhook processing latency, aiming for less than 50ms overhead per request.

• Reliability: The payload validation feature must be reliable, consistently checking and accurately reporting on payload integrity and schema conformity.

• Security: Implement validation in a manner that does not expose sensitive information or introduce security vulnerabilities, adhering to best practices for input handling and error reporting.

• Maintainability: Code related to payload validation should be modular, well-documented, and covered by automated tests to ensure maintainability and ease of future enhancements.

4. Technical Specifications

Architecture Context

MeshHook leverages a SvelteKit-based frontend, Supabase for backend services, and a distributed worker system for processing webhook events. This feature will be integrated into the webhook intake process managed by SvelteKit, with validation logic executed by the initial processing worker.

Implementation Approach

1. Schema Storage: Modify the webhook_triggers table to include a payload_schema JSONB field for storing user-defined JSON schemas.

2. Validation Library Integration: Integrate a JSON schema validation library, such as AJV (Another JSON Schema Validator), which is compatible with the existing Node.js backend.

3. Frontend Enhancements: Update the SvelteKit frontend to include a schema editor within the workflow configuration UI, enabling users to define and edit JSON schemas for their webhooks.

4. Validation Process: In the webhook processing worker, implement logic to fetch the associated JSON schema for incoming webhooks and validate payloads against these schemas before proceeding with workflow execution.

5. Error Handling and Feedback: Improve error logging to capture detailed validation failure messages. Adjust webhook responses to include user-friendly error messages without exposing sensitive information.

Data Model Changes

• Modify webhook_triggers:
  • Add payload_schema JSONB field to store JSON schema definitions.

API Endpoints

• Extend existing webhook configuration endpoints to support payload schema management:
  • POST /api/webhooks/{id}/schema to create/update a schema.
  • GET /api/webhooks/{id}/schema to retrieve the current schema.
  • DELETE /api/webhooks/{id}/schema to remove the schema.

5. Acceptance Criteria

• Users can define, edit, and delete JSON schemas for webhook payloads through the UI.
• Webhook payloads are validated against user-defined schemas before workflow execution.
• Invalid payloads result in the webhook being rejected and an appropriate error response.
• Validation errors and reasons for webhook rejection are clearly displayed in the UI and logged.
• Payload validation introduces less than 50ms additional latency to webhook processing.
• Documentation is updated to include payload validation guidelines and schema management API details.

6. Dependencies

• Selection and integration of a JSON schema validation library compatible with the current tech stack.
• UI enhancements requiring frontend development resources familiar with SvelteKit.

7. Implementation Notes

Development Guidelines

• Adhere to existing code style and project structure conventions.
• Optimize validation logic for performance to meet non-functional requirements.
• Ensure comprehensive test coverage, including unit tests for schema management and validation logic, and integration tests covering the full validation workflow.

Testing Strategy

• Unit Tests: Focus on schema storage operations and validation logic.
• Integration Tests: Cover end-to-end functionality, from schema definition in the UI through to webhook payload validation and error handling.
• Performance Tests: Evaluate the impact of payload validation on webhook processing latency to ensure compliance with performance targets.

Security Considerations

• Validate and sanitize schema definitions to prevent injection attacks.
• Ensure error messages related to payload validation do not leak sensitive information.
• Follow security best practices for handling user-generated schema definitions.

Monitoring & Observability

• Implement logging for all schema management operations and validation outcomes.
• Monitor the performance impact of payload validation on the webhook processing pipeline.

By adhering to these detailed requirements and specifications, MeshHook will enhance its webhook system with robust payload validation capabilities, further strengthening its position as a secure and reliable automation platform.

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This PRD was AI-generated using gpt-4-turbo-preview from GitHub issue #156
Generated: 2025-10-10

📎 Generated Documentation

• 📄 PRD Document: 156-payload-validation.md
• 🎨 PlantUML Diagram: 156-payload-validation.puml
• 🖼️ Diagram Image: 156-payload-validation.png

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This issue body was auto-generated from the PRD. Original issue content is preserved in the PRD document.
Last updated: 2025-10-10