## Summary Pay-as-you-go (PAYG) billing for Stirling-PDF SaaS. Manual PDF editing stays free forever; only **automation, AI, and API** usage is metered. Every team gets a **one-time lifetime free grant** (default 500 PDFs) before any billing; past that, a team adds a card and pays per metered document, with a self-set monthly spending cap. This branch combines and supersedes the in-flight BE (#6574) and FE (#6579) work plus the SaaS edge functions (Stirling-PDF-SaaS PR, now on `v3`), hardened into a single reviewable feature after a pre-merge dead-code/security review. ## Billing model - **Always free:** manual / JWT web-tool usage is `BYPASSED` — never metered, no matter where it's triggered. - **Billable categories:** `AUTOMATION`, `AI`, `API`. - **One-time lifetime free grant** (`pricing_policy.free_tier_units`, default 500): never resets, survives subscribing. It gates unsubscribed teams (billable API calls hard-stop with a 402 once exhausted) and decides the free-vs-paid split of every job. - **Subscribed:** paid documents (beyond the grant) are metered to a Stripe Billing Meter; an optional monthly spending cap degrades billable categories when reached. - **Dedup:** the same file pushed through several steps within a workflow window counts **once** (lineage join), so API/AI chaining on one file isn't double-charged. ## What's included **Database** — Flyway migrations `V11`→`V21` with matching Supabase twins: pricing policy + per-team sidecar (`payg_team_extensions`: subscription id, Stripe customer, free-grant counter), append-only `wallet_ledger`, shadow charges, subscription-state RPCs (`V14`), audit logs (`V15`), billing category (`V16`), one-time lifetime free grant (`V19`), launch-grant seed (`V20`), drop of the unused `wallet_category_summary` view (`V21`). **Charge pipeline** — `PaygChargeInterceptor` (open/join a process, split the free grant, write the ledger DEBIT), `JobChargeService` (consume the grant under a row lock, restore it on a first-step refund, meter only the paid portion on completion), `StaleJobCloser` fallback (idempotent close → meter). **Entitlement** — `EntitlementService` (per-team cached snapshot: grant-gated for free teams, monthly-cap-gated for subscribed) + `EntitlementGuard` (401 `SIGNUP_REQUIRED` / 402 `FEATURE_DEGRADED` / `PAYG_LIMIT_REACHED`). **Metering** — `PaygMeterReportingService` writes a durable `payg_meter_event_log` row around every POST to the `meter-payg-units` edge fn (pending → posted/failed); `PaygMeterReconcileScheduler` retries unposted events under the same idempotency key inside Stripe's 24h dedup window. **Billing facts** — `TeamBillingService` reads the synced `stripe.*` mirror (subscription window, per-document rate; the unsubscribed-team estimate resolves the rate by Price `lookup_key = plan:processor`). **Wallet API** — `PaygWalletController`: `GET /api/v1/payg/wallet`, `PATCH /api/v1/payg/cap`. **Frontend** — PAYG Plan page (two-card free layout + subscribed views), `useWallet`, upgrade modal with lazy-loaded Stripe Embedded Checkout and a shared `SpendCapControl`, customer-portal link, 402/401 interceptor toast, en-GB i18n. (Per-member usage shows each teammate's spend; the activity feed is behind a flag until polished.) **SaaS edge functions** (`Stirling-PDF-SaaS` `v3`) — `create-checkout-session`, `create-payg-team-subscription`, `create-customer-portal-session`, `meter-payg-units`, `payg-subscription-webhook`, `stripe-sync`, plus the stripe-sync `migrate` + scoped-`backfill` scripts. All price lookup is DB-driven (no `STRIPE_PAYG_PRICE_ID_*` env vars). ## Release prerequisites (prod) 1. Apply Flyway migrations (`V11`→`V21`) and the Supabase migration twins. 2. Stripe Sync Engine: run `stripe-sync:migrate`, then a **scoped** backfill — `product`, `price`, `customer`, `subscription` only (not `all`, which rate-limits). 3. Register 2 PAYG webhook endpoints (each its own signing secret): `stripe-sync` (product/price/customer/subscription `.*`) and `payg-subscription-webhook` (`customer.subscription.created`/`.deleted` drive state; `.updated` + `invoice.*` observed). Keep the legacy `stripe-webhook` only if credits/self-hosted flows still run. 4. Stripe Billing Meter: `event_name = payg_doc_units`, value key `processed_documents`. 5. Env: `PAYG_METER_ENDPOINT` + `SUPABASE_EDGE_FUNCTION_SECRET` (backend); the webhook signing secrets (edge fns). The default pricing policy must point at the PAYG Stripe Price(s); `V20` seeds `free_tier_units = 500`. ## Testing - `:saas:test` green, `:saas:spotlessCheck` clean, edge-fn Deno tests green, FE saas typecheck clean (the remaining errors are pre-existing `proprietary/*` + `prototypes/*`, untouched here). Cucumber shadow-mode suite + CI workflow included. ## Pre-merge review An independent dead-code/security pass came back **clean on security** (team-derived authz / no IDOR, leader-only cap mutation, no billing-category downgrade, dev/mock hooks gated to `import.meta.env.DEV` + `/dev/`, no secrets/injection, fail-open metering by design). The dead/unwired code it flagged has been removed in this branch (unenforced sub-cap control, an unused JDBC DAO + its view, dead methods). ## Follow-ups (tracked, not blocking) - **Enforce per-member sub-caps** — the control was removed because it read for display but never gated a request; the per-member usage display and `cap_units` column are retained for when enforcement is wired. - **API/AI chaining billing model + `ProcessType` enum** — confirm same-file dedup covers API chaining; define per-tool AI charging; decide whether the unused enum values stay. - **Activity feed** — hidden behind a flag until the meter-event surface is polished. --------- Co-authored-by: Reece <[email protected]>
Stirling PDF - The Open-Source PDF Platform
Stirling PDF is a powerful, open-source PDF editing platform. Run it as a personal desktop app, in the browser, or deploy it on your own servers with a private API. Edit, sign, redact, convert, and automate PDFs without sending documents to external services.
Key Capabilities
- Everywhere you work - Desktop client, browser UI, and self-hosted server with a private API.
- 50+ PDF tools - Edit, merge, split, sign, redact, convert, OCR, compress, and more.
- Automation & workflows - No-code pipelines direct in UI with APIs to process millions of PDFs.
- Enterprise‑grade - SSO, auditing, and flexible on‑prem deployments.
- Developer platform - REST APIs available for nearly all tools to integrate into your existing systems.
- Global UI - Interface available in 40+ languages.
For a full feature list, see the docs: https://docs.stirlingpdf.com
Quick Start
docker run -p 8080:8080 docker.stirlingpdf.com/stirlingtools/stirling-pdf
Then open: http://localhost:8080
For full installation options (including desktop and Kubernetes), see our Documentation Guide.
Resources
Support
- Community Discord
- Bug Reports: Github issues
Contributing
We welcome contributions! Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.
This project uses Task as a unified command runner for all build, dev, and test commands. Run task install to get started, or see the Developer Guide for full details.
For adding translations, see the Translation Guide.
License
Stirling PDF is open-core. See LICENSE for details.

