WhatsApp webhooks will retry; your business workflow must not duplicate_

Meta delivers WhatsApp events as HTTPS webhook requests. Delivery status and message events are inputs to your system, not commands that should be applied repeatedly without checks.

If a retry creates a second lead, sends a second reply, or advances a workflow twice, the bug lives in the receiving application—not the provider.

What changes in practice_

Verify requests, persist the provider event ID, acknowledge quickly, and process asynchronously with idempotent state changes.

• Authenticate the webhook.
• Deduplicate by stable event identity.
• Separate receipt from business processing.

Our take_

The durable advantage is not adopting the newest tool first. It is building the identity, state, evidence, and operating boundaries that let a real team own the system after launch.