diff --git a/swh/storage/listener.py b/swh/storage/listener.py
index e86c8d0..8ceb4ae 100644
--- a/swh/storage/listener.py
+++ b/swh/storage/listener.py
@@ -1,112 +1,120 @@
-# Copyright (C) 2016-2017 The Software Heritage developers
+# Copyright (C) 2016-2018 The Software Heritage developers
 # See the AUTHORS file at the top-level directory of this distribution
 # License: GNU General Public License version 3, or any later version
 # See top-level LICENSE file for more information
 
 import json
 import logging
 
 import kafka
 import msgpack
 
 import swh.storage.db
 
 from swh.core.config import load_named_config
 
 
 CONFIG_BASENAME = 'storage/listener'
 DEFAULT_CONFIG = {
     'database': ('str', 'service=softwareheritage'),
     'brokers': ('list[str]', ['getty.internal.softwareheritage.org']),
     'topic_prefix': ('str', 'swh.tmp_journal.new'),
     'poll_timeout': ('int', 10),
 }
 
 
-def decode_sha(value):
-    """Decode the textual representation of a SHA hash"""
-    if isinstance(value, str):
-        return bytes.fromhex(value)
-    return value
+def decode(object_type, obj):
+    """Decode a JSON obj of nature object_type. Depending on the nature of
+       the object, this can contain hex hashes
 
+    Args:
+        object_type (str): Nature of the object
+        obj (str): json dict representation whose values might be hex
+          identifier.
 
-def decode_json(value):
-    """Decode a JSON value containing hashes and other types"""
-    value = json.loads(value)
+    Returns:
+        dict representation ready for journal serialization
 
-    return {k: decode_sha(v) for k, v in value.items()}
+    """
+    value = json.loads(obj)
+
+    if object_type in ('origin', 'origin_visit'):
+        result = value
+    else:
+        result = {}
+        for k, v in value.items():
+            result[k] = bytes.fromhex(v)
+    return result
 
 
 OBJECT_TYPES = {
     'content',
     'skipped_content',
     'directory',
     'revision',
     'release',
     'snapshot',
     'origin_visit',
     'origin',
 }
 
 
 def register_all_notifies(db):
     """Register to notifications for all object types listed in OBJECT_TYPES"""
     with db.transaction() as cur:
         for object_type in OBJECT_TYPES:
             db.register_listener('new_%s' % object_type, cur)
 
 
 def dispatch_notify(topic_prefix, producer, notify):
     """Dispatch a notification to the proper topic"""
     channel = notify.channel
     if not channel.startswith('new_') or channel[4:] not in OBJECT_TYPES:
         logging.warn("Got unexpected notify %s" % notify)
         return
 
     object_type = channel[4:]
-
     topic = '%s.%s' % (topic_prefix, object_type)
-    data = decode_json(notify.payload)
-    producer.send(topic, value=data)
+    producer.send(topic, value=decode(object_type, notify.payload))
 
 
 def run_from_config(config):
     """Run the Software Heritage listener from configuration"""
     db = swh.storage.db.Db.connect(config['database'])
 
     def key_to_kafka(key):
         """Serialize a key, possibly a dict, in a predictable way.
 
         Duplicated from swh.journal to avoid a cyclic dependency."""
         p = msgpack.Packer(use_bin_type=True)
         if isinstance(key, dict):
             return p.pack_map_pairs(sorted(key.items()))
         else:
             return p.pack(key)
 
     producer = kafka.KafkaProducer(
         bootstrap_servers=config['brokers'],
         value_serializer=key_to_kafka,
     )
 
     register_all_notifies(db)
 
     topic_prefix = config['topic_prefix']
     poll_timeout = config['poll_timeout']
     try:
         while True:
             for notify in db.listen_notifies(poll_timeout):
                 dispatch_notify(topic_prefix, producer, notify)
             producer.flush()
     except Exception:
         logging.exception("Caught exception")
         producer.flush()
 
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
     logging.basicConfig(
         level=logging.INFO,
         format='%(asctime)s %(process)d %(levelname)s %(message)s'
     )
     config = load_named_config(CONFIG_BASENAME, DEFAULT_CONFIG)
     run_from_config(config)
diff --git a/swh/storage/tests/test_listener.py b/swh/storage/tests/test_listener.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4b32ea0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/swh/storage/tests/test_listener.py
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+# Copyright (C) 2018 The Software Heritage developers
+# See the AUTHORS file at the top-level directory of this distribution
+# License: GNU General Public License version 3, or any later version
+# See top-level LICENSE file for more information
+
+import json
+import unittest
+
+from swh.storage.listener import decode
+
+
+class ListenerUtils(unittest.TestCase):
+    def test_decode(self):
+        inputs = [
+            ('content', json.dumps({
+                'sha1': '34973274ccef6ab4dfaaf86599792fa9c3fe4689',
+            })),
+            ('origin', json.dumps({
+                'url': 'https://some/origin',
+                'type': 'svn',
+            })),
+            ('origin_visit', json.dumps({
+                'visit': 2,
+                'origin': {
+                    'url': 'https://some/origin',
+                    'type': 'hg',
+                }
+            }))
+        ]
+
+        expected_inputs = [{
+            'sha1': bytes.fromhex('34973274ccef6ab4dfaaf86599792fa9c3fe4689'),
+        }, {
+            'url': 'https://some/origin',
+            'type': 'svn',
+        }, {
+            'visit': 2,
+            'origin': {
+                'url': 'https://some/origin',
+                'type': 'hg'
+            },
+        }]
+
+        for i, (object_type, obj) in enumerate(inputs):
+            actual_value = decode(object_type, obj)
+            self.assertEqual(actual_value, expected_inputs[i])
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index 385a77f..2f47441 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -1,25 +1,27 @@
 [tox]
 envlist=flake8,py3
 
 [testenv:py3]
 deps =
   .[testing]
+  .[listener]
   pytest-cov
   pifpaf
 commands =
   pifpaf run postgresql -- pytest --hypothesis-profile=fast --cov=swh --cov-branch {posargs}
 
 [testenv:py3-slow]
 deps =
   .[testing]
+  .[listener]
   pytest-cov
   pifpaf
 commands =
   pifpaf run postgresql -- pytest --hypothesis-profile=slow --cov=swh --cov-branch {posargs}
 
 [testenv:flake8]
 skip_install = true
 deps =
   flake8
 commands =
   {envpython} -m flake8