## Stripe API Overview

This document outlines key aspects of the Stripe API, covering its structure, common functionalities, and best practices for integration. It is intended for developers working with Stripe's platform to manage payments, subscriptions, and other financial workflows.

### API Versions

Stripe offers two primary API namespaces: v1 and v2.

*   **API v1:** This namespace includes most of the existing Stripe API endpoints.
*   **API v2:** This namespace features endpoints that utilize v2 design patterns.

Key differences include:
*   **Encoding:** v1 uses form encoding for requests and JSON for responses, while v2 uses JSON for both.
*   **Testing:** Both namespaces can be validated using Sandboxes.
*   **Idempotency:** v2's idempotency handling focuses on retrying failed requests without side effects.
*   **Events:** v2 events are "thin" by default, meaning they contain minimal payloads.

Stripe also has a versioning and support policy, with monthly releases and twice-yearly major releases that may introduce breaking changes. Developers can set specific API versions for their requests and webhook endpoints.

### Core API Functionalities

*   **Authentication and API Keys:** Stripe uses API keys to authenticate requests. Different types of keys (publishable, secret, restricted) exist for various use cases. Best practices emphasize securing secret keys and not embedding them in source code.
*   **Making Requests:** This includes understanding how to structure requests, specifying context with headers like `Stripe-Context`, and handling domains and IP addresses.
*   **Response Handling:**
    *   **Expanding Responses:** The `expand` parameter allows for retrieving related objects in a single API call, reducing latency.
    *   **Pagination:** For endpoints that return multiple objects, pagination is used to retrieve results in pages, with `limit` and `has_more` parameters controlling the process.
    *   **Include-Dependent Response Values (API v2):** Certain v2 response properties may be `null` by default to reduce payload size. These can be retrieved by specifying them in the `include` parameter.
*   **Error Handling:** Stripe provides comprehensive error handling mechanisms. This includes understanding HTTP error categories (content, network, server), parsing error data (code, message, param, type), and advanced error handling for low-level HTTP details. Specific error codes are documented to aid in resolution.
*   **Testing and Data:**
    *   **Automated Testing:** Simulating API responses and error conditions is crucial for testing application behavior.
    *   **Metadata:** Key-value pairs can be attached to Stripe objects for custom data storage, with limitations on key and value lengths. Sensitive data should not be stored in metadata.
*   **Rate Limits:** Stripe enforces rate limits to ensure API stability. Understanding these limits and handling 429 error responses is important for robust integrations.
*   **Batch Jobs:** The Batch Jobs API allows for asynchronous processing of multiple API requests in a single file upload, useful for bulk operations like migrations and mass updates. Best practices include choosing the right `maximum_rps`, using validation, and splitting large workloads.
*   **Webhooks:** Webhooks enable Stripe to notify your application about events occurring in your account. This includes setting up webhook endpoints, handling various event types (payment events, climate orders), processing incoming webhooks with event notification handlers, and managing webhook versioning. Event destinations can also be configured to send events to services like Amazon EventBridge and Azure Event Grid.
*   **Developer Tools:**
    *   **Stripe CLI:** A command-line interface for interacting with Stripe, including triggering webhook events and testing integrations.
    *   **Developers Dashboard/Workbench:** A comprehensive tool for monitoring API request logs, viewing events, managing webhook endpoints, and analyzing integration health. Workbench offers features like the Shell and API Explorer for debugging and API exploration.
*   **Security:**
    *   **Integration Security Guide:** Emphasizes PCI compliance and secure customer-server communications.
    *   **Privacy:** Tools and APIs are available for handling customer deletion requests and redacting personal data from Stripe objects.
    *   **TLS Certificates:** Ensures secure communication over HTTPS.
*   **Localization:** Stripe supports localization for certain APIs, allowing you to provide translated content to users.

This overview provides a foundational understanding of the Stripe API. For detailed information on specific endpoints, parameters, and advanced functionalities, refer to the individual documentation pages.