Billing & Security Integration Patterns

“Configuration is not reality. Verification must be active, not passive.”

This skill codifies lessons from 3 prod incidents (chrondle, bibliomnomnom, volume) where Stripe integrations failed despite passing code review.

Core Principle

Code reviews catch code bugs, not configuration bugs. External service integrations require:

1. Format validation (API key patterns, URL formats)
2. Reachability verification (can we actually reach the webhook URL?)
3. Cross-deployment parity (Vercel and Convex must have same config)
4. Runtime reconciliation (compare external state vs database state)

Critical Patterns

1. Environment Variable Hygiene

Always trim env vars:

// WRONG - trailing whitespace causes "Invalid character in header"
const key = process.env.STRIPE_SECRET_KEY;

// RIGHT - always trim
const key = process.env.STRIPE_SECRET_KEY?.trim();

Validate format before use:

const STRIPE_KEY_PATTERN = /^sk_(test|live)_[a-zA-Z0-9]+$/;
if (!STRIPE_KEY_PATTERN.test(key)) {
  throw new Error("Invalid STRIPE_SECRET_KEY format");
}

2. Webhook URL Validation

Stripe does NOT follow redirects for POST requests. If your webhook URL returns 3xx, webhooks silently fail.

# Check for redirects BEFORE configuring webhook
curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" -I -X POST "https://your-domain.com/api/webhooks/stripe"
# Must return 4xx or 5xx, NOT 3xx

Use canonical domain:

• If example.com redirects to www.example.com, configure webhook for www.example.com

3. Cross-Deployment Parity

When using Vercel + Convex (or similar split architectures):

• Env vars must be set on BOTH platforms
• Use --prod flag: npx convex env set --prod KEY value
• Verify parity: compare vercel env ls with npx convex env list --prod

4. Stripe Parameter Constraints

Mode-dependent parameters:

Common trap: Using customer_creation: "always" in subscription mode throws an error at checkout time, not at compile time.

Pre-Deployment Checklist

Before deploying any billing integration:

• All env vars trimmed at read time
• API key formats validated
• Webhook URL returns non-3xx status
• Vercel and Convex have matching config
• Signature verification enabled
• Error handling returns 200 (prevent Stripe infinite retries)

Debugging Workflow (OODA-V)

When billing integration fails:

1. Observe – Check if request reaches server (look for logs)
2. Orient – If no logs, it is network/redirect, not code
3. Decide – Run curl -I on webhook URL
4. Act – Fix configuration
5. Verify – Resend event, watch pending_webhooks decrease

References

• Stripe Constraints – API parameter rules
• Env Var Hygiene – Validation patterns
• Incident Patterns – Real failures from 3 projects

Scripts

• scripts/verify-webhook-url.sh <url> – Check for redirects
• scripts/verify-env-parity.sh – Compare Vercel/Convex config
• scripts/audit-stripe-config.py – Full Stripe diagnostic