Create an AfterShip tracking entry and receive webhook status updates
domain: aftership.com · 5 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
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Steps
Obtain an AfterShip API key from the dashboard and include it as 'as-api-key' in the request header on all API calls to https://api.aftership.com/v4.
POST /trackings with a JSON body containing 'tracking' object with 'tracking_number' and 'slug' (carrier slug, e.g., 'ups', 'fedex', 'usps'); optionally include 'title', 'emails', or 'smses' for built-in notification delivery.
AfterShip begins polling the carrier for status updates automatically; the tracking object 'tag' field represents the normalized status ('Pending', 'InTransit', 'OutForDelivery', 'Delivered', 'Exception', etc.).
To receive webhooks, go to AfterShip dashboard > Notifications > Webhooks and register your HTTPS endpoint; AfterShip will POST tracking update payloads to this URL on status changes.
The webhook payload contains 'event' ('tracking_update'), 'msg' with the full tracking object including 'tag', 'checkpoints' array, and 'last_updated_at'.
Known gotchas
AfterShip's carrier 'slug' must match AfterShip's own carrier list exactly — mismatched slugs cause the tracking to stay in 'Pending' indefinitely instead of resolving.
AfterShip polls carriers on its own schedule; real-time webhooks may still lag actual carrier scans by minutes to hours depending on the carrier.
Webhook delivery is not guaranteed exactly-once; implement idempotency by keying on 'tracking_number' + 'checkpoint timestamp' to avoid duplicate processing.
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