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name: stripe-integration description: Implement Stripe payment processing for robust, PCI-compliant payment flows including checkout, subscriptions, and webhooks. Use when integrating Stripe payments, building subscription systems, or implementing secure checkout flows.

Stripe Integration

Master Stripe payment processing integration for robust, PCI-compliant payment flows including checkout, subscriptions, webhooks, and refunds.

When to Use This Skill

• Implementing payment processing in web/mobile applications
• Setting up subscription billing systems
• Handling one-time payments and recurring charges
• Processing refunds and disputes
• Managing customer payment methods
• Implementing SCA (Strong Customer Authentication) for European payments
• Building marketplace payment flows with Stripe Connect

Core Concepts

1. Payment Flows

Checkout Sessions

• Recommended for most integrations
• Supports all UI paths:
  • Stripe-hosted checkout page
  • Embedded checkout form
  • Custom UI with Elements (Payment Element, Express Checkout Element) using ui_mode='custom'
• Provides built-in checkout capabilities (line items, discounts, tax, shipping, address collection, saved payment methods, and checkout lifecycle events)
• Lower integration and maintenance burden than Payment Intents

Payment Intents (Bespoke control)

• You calculate the final amount with taxes, discounts, subscriptions, and currency conversion yourself.
• More complex implementation and long-term maintenance burden
• Requires Stripe.js for PCI compliance

Setup Intents (Save Payment Methods)

• Collect payment method without charging
• Used for subscriptions and future payments
• Requires customer confirmation

2. Webhooks

Critical Events:

• payment_intent.succeeded: Payment completed
• payment_intent.payment_failed: Payment failed
• customer.subscription.updated: Subscription changed
• customer.subscription.deleted: Subscription canceled
• charge.refunded: Refund processed
• invoice.payment_succeeded: Subscription payment successful

3. Subscriptions

Components:

• Product: What you're selling
• Price: How much and how often
• Subscription: Customer's recurring payment
• Invoice: Generated for each billing cycle

4. Customer Management

• Create and manage customer records
• Store multiple payment methods
• Track customer metadata
• Manage billing details

Quick Start

import stripe

stripe.api_key = "sk_test_..."

# Create a checkout session
session = stripe.checkout.Session.create(
    line_items=[{
        'price_data': {
            'currency': 'usd',
            'product_data': {
                'name': 'Premium Subscription',
            },
            'unit_amount': 2000,  # $20.00
            'recurring': {
                'interval': 'month',
            },
        },
        'quantity': 1,
    }],
    mode='subscription',
    success_url='https://yourdomain.com/success?session_id={CHECKOUT_SESSION_ID}',
    cancel_url='https://yourdomain.com/cancel'
)

# Redirect user to session.url
print(session.url)

Detailed patterns and worked examples

Detailed pattern documentation lives in references/details.md. Read that file when the navigation tier above is insufficient.

Testing

# Use test mode keys
stripe.api_key = "sk_test_..."

# Test card numbers
TEST_CARDS = {
    'success': '4242424242424242',
    'declined': '4000000000000002',
    '3d_secure': '4000002500003155',
    'insufficient_funds': '4000000000009995'
}

def test_payment_flow():
    """Test complete payment flow."""
    # Create test customer
    customer = stripe.Customer.create(
        email="test@example.com"
    )

    # Create payment intent
    intent = stripe.PaymentIntent.create(
        amount=1000,
        automatic_payment_methods={
            'enabled': True
        },
        currency='usd',
        customer=customer.id
    )

    # Confirm with test card
    confirmed = stripe.PaymentIntent.confirm(
        intent.id,
        payment_method='pm_card_visa'  # Test payment method
    )

    assert confirmed.status == 'succeeded'