Discovering Dual Stripe Accounts: Payment Link Generation and Credential Architecture

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What Was Done

Generated a Stripe payment link for a charter balance payment with automatic credit card processing fee calculation. The task revealed a critical credential architecture issue: the estate maintains two separate Stripe accounts with distinct branding, and the existing payment-link tooling was misconfigured to use the wrong account for client-facing transactions.

Technical Details: Payment Link Generation

The payment link creation involved three technical layers:

Amount calculation: Base balance ($3,250) + 2.9% card processing fee = $3,344.25 (fee = $94.25)
Stripe API endpoint: POST /v1/payment_links with line_items array containing description, amount, and currency
Line item metadata: "July 4 Fireworks Charter — Balance Due (Dylan Osborne) — incl. 2.9% card processing fee" rendered on customer checkout and merchant receipt
Account selection: Routed to Sail JADA Charters LLC account (not Dangerous Centaur) to ensure customer card statement reads SAIL JADA, not an unrelated business name

The link was verified live (HTTP 200, active) with the checkout page displaying correct branding and total amount before forwarding to the customer.

Infrastructure: Dual Stripe Account Architecture

The discovery surfaced a credential split that was previously undocumented in infrastructure memory:

Dangerous Centaur account: Stored in ~/.repos.env (or via adam-cherry-checkout Lambda environment variable in us-east-1), used for dangerouscentaur.com orders (separate business entity)
Sail JADA Charters LLC account: Stored as JADA_STRIPE_SECRET_KEY environment variable on the shipcaptaincrew Lambda, used for charter-related payments

Both accounts have distinct merchant IDs (acct_1TCmJe3IcHtrGhWm for JADA) and will render different branding on customer checkouts and bank statements. This separation is intentional—each business entity requires its own Stripe account for accounting and tax reporting.

Credential Access Pattern

The two accounts are accessed via different routes:

# Dangerous Centaur: sourced from local repos.env (Mac development)
# Used by adam-cherry-checkout Lambda for dangerouscentaur.com orders

# Sail JADA Charters LLC: sourced from shipcaptaincrew Lambda environment
# Used for all JADA charter-related payments (preferred for client-facing links)

For Mac-based payment link generation, the JADA key is retrieved from the Lightsail shipcaptaincrew Lambda environment (since the memory constraint notes that Mac cannot directly reach api.stripe.com). This follows the established pattern: headless/API operations run via Lightsail to avoid network reachability issues.

The Tooling Issue: jaja-payment-link Script

The repository includes a pre-built payment-link utility at ~/bin/jada-payment-link. During this session, the script was not used because it currently points to the Dangerous Centaur Stripe key (the wrong account for JADA charters). Any payment link generated by that script renders Dangerous Centaur branding to the customer—unacceptable for charter invoices.

The script exists for valid reasons (DRY principle, consistent fee calculation), but it requires a fix: the hardcoded or environment-sourced Stripe key must be repointed at JADA_STRIPE_SECRET_KEY (the shipcaptaincrew Lambda key) before it can be safely used for client-facing transactions.

Key Decisions

Direct API call vs. script: Rather than debug the existing script in production, the payment link was created via direct Stripe API call using the verified JADA key. This ensures immediate correctness and avoids deploying a misconfigured tool.
Fee inclusion: The 2.9% processing fee ($94.25) is added to the customer's balance and included in the line item description. This is transparent on the checkout page and receipt. The fee is not absorbed internally—the customer pays the full amount including fees.
Branding selection: Sail JADA Charters LLC account was chosen explicitly to match customer expectations and internal accounting (charter revenues post to the JADA merchant account, not Dangerous Centaur).
Credential discovery: This session revealed that the infrastructure memory did not accurately reflect the dual-account architecture. The finding was recorded immediately to prevent future credential misrouting.

What's Next

Two follow-up tasks are pending:

Fix ~/bin/jada-payment-link: Update the script to source JADA_STRIPE_SECRET_KEY (from Lightsail shipcaptaincrew Lambda or local secret store) instead of the Dangerous Centaur key. Once corrected, this script can be the standard tool for generating charter payment links, eliminating manual API calls.
Credential consolidation audit: Review all locations where Stripe keys are stored (repos.env, Lambda environments, local secret files, etc.) and ensure a single source of truth for credential distribution. This reduces the risk of tools silently using the wrong account.
Ledger entry: When Dylan Osborne's payment clears, the $3,344.25 transaction will be recorded in the financial ledger and his charter status updated to "cleared to depart."

The payment link is live and ready for delivery to the customer.

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