cmux Billing

Read before changing billing, pricing, Stripe, Pro entitlement, checkout, webhook, or subscription code.

Architecture map

• /api/billing/checkout creates Stripe Checkout Sessions for Pro when STRIPE_SECRET_KEY is set. It sets client_reference_id to the Stack user id, auto-creates an anonymous Stack user for signed-out buyers, and falls back to the legacy Stack purchase path when Stripe is unset or plan=team. The "already active" short-circuit lives here.
• /api/billing/portal resolves the current Stack user, looks up their stripe_customers row, and creates a Stripe customer portal session returning to /pricing.
• /api/billing/subscription cancels or resumes the active Stripe Pro subscription; /dashboard/billing renders localized in-dashboard plan state and self-serve actions.
• web/services/billing/purchase.ts is the shared idempotent recorder used by /api/billing/complete and /api/stripe/webhook. It attaches email to the purchaser, records billing_email_claims on conflict, and never cross-grants based on an unverified email.
• VM code reads the plan from Stack clientReadOnlyMetadata: a non-empty cmuxVmPlan (operator override) takes precedence, otherwise cmuxPlan (the Stripe mirror) supplies the entitlement. resolveProPlanStatus reports Pro for an active stripe_subscriptions row or a paid cmuxVmPlan override (pro, team, founders); billingManagement stays Stripe-only, so a granted account shows Pro without a portal link.
• /dashboard/admin (nav group admin) lets verified cmux.com, manaflow.ai, and manaflow.com accounts search users, teams, and emails and, after a confirmation dialog: grant or remove the user cmuxVmPlan override (/api/admin/users), grant or remove a team override of team (/api/admin/teams), grant Pro to an email with no account yet (/api/admin/email-grants, stored in admin_plan_grants and applied by the after-sign-in callback once the mailbox is verified), and downgrade a paying customer by cancelling the Stripe subscription at period end (/api/admin/subscriptions, same service as the self-serve form). services/admin/access.ts is the gate, services/admin/proGrants.ts writes under the account-mutation lease and records serverMetadata.cmuxAdminPlanGrant (who, when, which plan). Non-admins get 404 on the page and 403 on the API. The admin_plan_grants migration is an operator step; until it runs, pending email grants report 503 and search omits them.
• /api/stripe/webhook is signature-verified, insert-first idempotent through stripe_webhook_events, safe for foreign events in the shared Stripe account, and gates cmux handling on metadata.app === "cmux". Return 2xx only after durable writes; return 500 to make Stripe retry.

Dev workflow

• Use web/scripts/stripe/dev-stack.sh.
• Local bun dev accounts use the development Stack project and receive a
  non-persistent Pro entitlement automatically. This applies only when
  CMUX_LOCAL_DEV_PRO=1, NODE_ENV=development, VERCEL_ENV is unset, and
  NEXT_PUBLIC_STACK_PROJECT_ID is the development project. Release and
  preview deployments remain billing-backed. Use dev-grant.sh only when
  testing an explicit manual grant or a non-local deployment.
• The tagged app bakes CMUX_PORT into Info.plist; run the dev server on the tag's printed port, never a hardcoded one.
• Per-branch Docker Postgres ports collide with other agents' containers. Use --db-port and never stop containers you did not create.
• /app-pricing requires cmux_app=1. cmux_scheme threads the native deeplink return scheme; cmux-dev-* schemes are honored only for localhost requests.
• Repeat dogfood: use a private window for a fresh anonymous buyer, and web/scripts/stripe/dev-reset.sh <email> to un-Pro a signed-in dev account before retesting checkout.
• Fake payment, two ways: web/scripts/stripe/dev-grant.sh <email> writes cmuxVmPlan: "pro" directly (same override as the admin page) (instant, no checkout; undo with dev-reset). For the full checkout path at $0, enter promotion code CMUXDEV100 in test-mode checkout — a 100%-off forever coupon in the test account; allow_promotion_codes is already set on checkout sessions.
• Newer Stripe CLI prints stripe config --list as key=value (older builds used key = 'value'); dev-stack.sh and dev-reset.sh accept both. If key extraction fails, re-run stripe login.

Catalog

Prices live in web/services/billing/plans.ts and are provisioned by web/scripts/stripe/provision-catalog.sh. Current checkout keys: cmux-pro-monthly-50 ($50/mo), cmux-pro-yearly-480 ($480/yr, $40/mo equivalent), cmux-team-monthly-60 ($60/user/mo), cmux-team-yearly-576 ($576/user/yr, $48/mo equivalent). Stripe amounts are immutable, so a price change mints a new lookup key carrying the amount and adds the old key to LEGACY_PRICE_LOOKUP_KEYS; grandfathered Prices (cmux-pro-monthly $30, cmux-pro-yearly $240, cmux-pro-yearly-288 $288, cmux-team-monthly $35, cmux-team-yearly-336 $336) stay active for the subscriptions on them and /dashboard/billing prices every row from its own Stripe amount. Env price-id overrides carry the amount in their name (STRIPE_PRO_MONTHLY_50_PRICE_ID and friends); a retired name fails env validation, so delete it from Vercel before deploying a price change. Test-mode Pro product prod_UyHgRPpmCzrkLJ, live prod_Uq4a28vk0fP3E6. Staging webhook endpoint we_1Tq1SZGhInAdn3JbWJReKNEN forwards to cmux-staging.vercel.app; its secrets are already in the cmux-staging Vercel project.

The paid Cloud VM allowance lives in web/services/vms/machineSpec.ts: Pro allows up to 50 machines for one paid account. Team grants 50 machines per paid seat, so each paid seat adds one allowance and one shared pool. Each allowance shares 5 vCPU, 20 GB RAM, and 200 GB disk across its Cloud VMs. New provider machines start with a 32 GB disk and can grow. The VM repository persists reservations and enforces the aggregate pool under the billing-team lock, treating CPU and memory as shared ceilings and adding disk claims; the entitlement module only resolves the allowance and shared-capacity policy. web/tests/pro-pricing.test.ts pins the pricing copy and the provider starting disk.

Feature flags

pro-upgrade-ui-enabled-release (PostHog id 741838) gates all Pro UI and stays OFF in release until launch; DEBUG builds default it on. Public Pro and Team pricing CTAs always route through /api/billing/checkout, never the download confirmation page. cmux __internal_flags, once merged, inspects and overrides flags locally.

Prod runbook

Run web/scripts/stripe/provision-live.sh with an operator key, add the two Vercel envs, deploy, validate live with a 100-percent-off promotion code purchase, then cancel.

DB migrations: bun run cloud-vm:preflight, bun run cloud-vm:migrate -- staging, staging deploy, then bun run cloud-vm:migrate -- production. Never run migrations from builds. See the Cloud VM ops flow.

Gotchas

• bun mock.module is process-global, so every module mock must carry every real export other suite files import. A missing export can surface only in CI's test order as Export named X not found.
• Tests must not depend on DATABASE_URL being set.
• drizzle-1.0-beta wraps pg errors in DrizzleQueryError; read error.cause for the pg code and constraint.
• Pages outside app/[locale] need a proxy.ts bypass (like /app-pricing and /billing), or next-intl rewrites them into the locale tree and they 404 through missing root layout tags. Those subtrees also need their own layout with html and body.