Imported from borghei/claude-skills (
engineering/stripe-integration-expert/SKILL.md). Install upstream withnpx skills add borghei/claude-skills --skill stripe-integration-expert. Copyright stays with the author (MIT + Commons Clause).
Stripe Integration Expert
The agent builds production-grade Stripe integrations for SaaS billing: subscription lifecycle management with trials and proration, idempotent webhook handlers, usage-based metered billing, Checkout sessions, Customer Portal, dunning recovery, and SCA/3D Secure compliance. Provides patterns for Next.js, Express, and Django with emphasis on real-world edge cases.
Core Capabilities
- Checkout & client setup — pinned-version Stripe client, centralized plan config, Checkout sessions with trials, tax collection, and promo codes
- Subscription lifecycle — a state machine covering trialing → active → past_due → canceled, plus upgrades/downgrades with proration previews and reactivation
- Idempotent webhooks — signature verification, event dedup, re-fetch-from-API handlers, and retry-safe processing
- Usage-based billing & gating — metered usage records, feature gating by plan, and grace-period access logic
- Dunning & SCA — payment-failure email sequences and PSD2 / 3D Secure authentication flows
- Local testing — Stripe CLI webhook forwarding, event triggers, and test card matrix
When to Use
- Building SaaS subscription billing from scratch on Next.js, Express, or Django
- Adding plan upgrades/downgrades with correct proration behavior
- Hardening or debugging a webhook endpoint for idempotency and retry safety
- Implementing metered/usage-based billing or feature gating by plan
- Adding dunning recovery or European SCA/3D Secure compliance
Clarify First
Before building the integration, settle the inputs below. When one is missing or vague and would change the result, ask about it; when it wouldn't, use a sensible default and say which one you used.
- Framework: Next.js / Express / Django (the handler and client patterns differ per stack).
- Billing model: flat subscription / metered usage-based / trials + proration (shapes the subscription state machine and code).
- Scope: which piece: Checkout, idempotent webhooks, dunning, or SCA/3D Secure (selects the reference and code generated).
Ask about the two or three inputs that matter most for this request, not the whole list. If the user wants a result straight away, produce it and state your assumptions at the top.
References
Load the reference that matches the task — keep this file lean and pull detail on demand:
- references/payment-flows.md — Stripe client setup, plan config, Checkout sessions, Customer Portal, and SCA/3D Secure. Read when wiring up the client or building the checkout/portal redirects.
- references/subscriptions.md — lifecycle state-machine diagram, upgrade/downgrade/preview/cancel code, usage-based billing, feature gating, and the Prisma schema. Read when modeling subscription state or implementing plan changes.
- references/webhooks.md — the full idempotent webhook handler with signature verification and every event handler. Read when building or auditing the webhook endpoint.
- references/testing-and-troubleshooting.md — Stripe CLI testing, common pitfalls, troubleshooting table, and success criteria. Read when testing locally or diagnosing a billing bug.
Related Skills
| Skill | Use When |
|---|---|
| ab-test-setup | Testing pricing page variants and checkout flows |
| analytics-tracking | Tracking checkout and subscription conversion events |
| email-template-builder | Building dunning and billing notification emails |
| api-design-reviewer | Reviewing your billing API endpoints |
Scope & Limitations
This skill covers:
- Stripe Checkout, Subscriptions, and Customer Portal integration for SaaS billing
- Webhook handling with idempotency, signature verification, and retry safety
- Usage-based (metered) billing, proration previews, and plan change workflows
- SCA/3D Secure compliance for European payment regulations (PSD2)
This skill does NOT cover:
- Stripe Connect (marketplace payouts, multi-party payments) -- see platform-specific Stripe Connect documentation
- One-time payment flows without subscriptions (e.g., e-commerce product purchases)
- Tax calculation and remittance (Stripe Tax configuration, VAT/GST filing) -- see
ra-qm-team/compliance skills for regulatory guidance - Payment fraud detection and dispute management (Stripe Radar rules, chargeback workflows) -- see
skill-security-auditorfor security review patterns
Integration Points
| Skill | Integration | Data Flow |
|---|---|---|
| api-design-reviewer | Review billing API endpoints for REST conventions, error handling, and rate limiting | Billing route definitions --> API review checklist --> validated endpoint contracts |
| database-schema-designer | Design and validate the Prisma schema for Stripe customer, subscription, and event tracking tables | Schema requirements --> normalized table design --> migration files |
| observability-designer | Instrument webhook handlers and checkout flows with structured logging, metrics, and alerting | Webhook events --> OpenTelemetry traces --> dashboard alerts on failure spikes |
| env-secrets-manager | Manage Stripe API keys, webhook secrets, and price IDs across dev/staging/production | Secret definitions --> encrypted vault storage --> runtime injection via env vars |
| ci-cd-pipeline-builder | Automate Stripe CLI webhook testing in CI and validate integration before deployment | Test triggers --> stripe listen in CI --> webhook handler assertions |
| runbook-generator | Create operational runbooks for billing incidents: failed webhooks, mass payment failures, subscription reconciliation | Incident scenarios --> step-by-step remediation --> escalation paths |
