# Best Practices

This guide covers best practices for integrating with the Xenia Connect API.

## Webhook Handling

- Always process webhooks asynchronously to ensure quick response times and prevent timeouts:
- Use the `eventId` field to prevent duplicate processing:
- Webhooks can be fired out of order; although highly unlikely, we expect you to retrieve the latest data from the API and handle it instead of relying on the event data itself.
- To tell us you have processed the webhook successfully and prevent retries, your HTTP Response code should be 204.
- Send a 4xx or a 5xx in order to have Xenia retry the webhook. Webhooks have an exponential backoff retry mechanism, retrying up to 5 times over a period of 24 hours.


## Webhook Configuration

- **Maximum webhooks**: 5 per environment
- **Event filtering**: Subscribe only to events you need to reduce noise
- **Unique URLs**: Each webhook must have a unique URL


## Common Pitfalls to Avoid

1. **Don't ignore webhook retries**: Xenia retries failed webhooks up to 5 times - ensure your endpoint can handle retries
2. **Don't assume state order**: States can skip (e.g. `ENQUIRY.CREATED` directly to `ENQUIRY.CLOSED`)
3. **Don't ignore pagination**: Large result sets require handling pagination