Payment Provider

To charge for your product you need a payment provider, and the standard is Stripe. In this lesson you'll install the Stripe skill, set up your Stripe account in test mode, and create the products and prices from your pricing strategy. You integrate Stripe directly – Checkout for paying, webhooks for keeping your app in sync – so you fully control your payments and your data (which lives in Neon).

Why Stripe directly

Some tools bundle billing for you, but integrating Stripe yourself with the Stripe skill keeps everything in your control and in your own database: Stripe handles the card details and PCI compliance, while your app gates features by who's signed in (Clerk) and what they've paid for (stored in Neon).

1. How Stripe works

A quick mental model:

  • Test mode vs live mode. Stripe gives you separate test and live environments. You build and test with test keys and fake cards (like 4242 4242 4242 4242), then switch to live keys when you're ready for real money.
  • Checkout. Stripe hosts the secure payment page – you send the customer there, they pay, Stripe handles the card.
  • Webhooks. After a payment or subscription change, Stripe notifies your app via a webhook so you can update what the user has access to.

Outcome: You understand test mode, Checkout, and webhooks at a high level.

I understand how Stripe works (test mode, Checkout, webhooks)

2. Install the Stripe skill

Ask Claude in the chat: "install the Stripe skill" – it adds Stripe's official best-practices skill so Claude knows the current, secure way to wire up payments.

Start a new chat so the skill loads

As always: after installing, start a new chat so the skill is active, and hand it your context (your concept, your pricing strategy, and that you'll integrate Stripe directly with Clerk + Neon).

Outcome: Claude has the Stripe skill ready.

I installed the Stripe skill

3. Set up your Stripe account and products

Now create your Stripe account (test mode) and turn your pricing tiers into Stripe products and prices.

Set up Stripe in test mode with my pricing
Help me set up Stripe for my app, in test mode for now:
1.Walk me through creating a Stripe account (I'll sign in when needed).
2.Using my pricing strategy (docs/pricing-strategy/pricing-strategy.md), create the matching products and prices in Stripe – recurring subscriptions with the tiers I defined.
3.Store my Stripe test keys in the Vercel vault (never pasted into a file): the publishable key and the secret key.
4.Confirm everything is set up and tell me the product/price IDs I'll use.

Outcome: Your Stripe account exists in test mode, your pricing is set up as products and prices, and your test keys are in the Vercel vault.

I set up Stripe in test mode with my pricing

4. What's next

Stripe is ready. In the next lessons you'll build the customer-facing side and the secure plumbing:

  • Purchase Experience: a pricing page and Stripe Checkout so users can subscribe.
  • Payment Gates: webhooks that record each subscription in Neon, and feature gating that checks the signed-in user (Clerk) against what they've paid for.

Outcome: You're ready to build the purchase flow.

My payment foundation is ready