Develop and debug inbound SMS webhook handlers locally using Cloudflare Tunnels and SMSRiver's Webhook Payload Validator without deploying to staging.
Developing webhook handlers locally can be frustrating because carriers cannot dispatch HTTP requests to localhost. By combining reverse tunneling with payload schema mocking, engineers can inspect, modify, and test webhook code with instant hot-reloading.
1 Local Development Workflow
1. Run your local application server (e.g. localhost:8000).
2. Expose a temporary public URL using Cloudflare Tunnel (cloudflared tunnel --url http://localhost:8000).
3. Use SMSRiver's Webhook Payload Validator (/tools/webhook-payload-validator/) to verify that your endpoint parses Twilio, Telnyx, and Plivo formats accurately.
Frequently Asked Questions • QA Automation & Testing
Yes. Keep signature validation active in local development and inject valid mock signatures to ensure security middleware does not fail unexpectedly in production.