Stripe Billing Cycle Test

Standard procedure for validating that a subscription bills correctly on its next cycle by simulating time with a Stripe test clock. All steps run against Stripe test mode only (the MCP rejects live keys).

Order matters

The steps below are strictly ordered. A customer can be attached to a test clock only at creation time, so the clock must exist before the customer, and the customer before the subscription.

Steps

1. Create the test clock. Tool: create_stripe_test_clock

   • frozen_time (required): Unix timestamp in seconds for the starting time.
   • name (optional): a label to find it later.
   • Keep the returned test clock id for the next steps.

2. Create a customer attached to that clock. Tool: create_stripe_test_customers

   • test_clock: the id from step 1.
   • number: keep it at most 3 (max 3 customers per clock).
   • payment_method_id (optional but recommended): attach a test payment method (for example pm_card_visa) so the renewal invoice can be paid instead of staying open. Confirm against the Stripe docs which test payment method fits the card behavior you want.
   • Keep the returned customer id(s).

3. Create the subscription. Tool: create_stripe_test_subscription

   • customer: the id from step 2.
   • items: array of { price, quantity }. The price must be a recurring price id from your test data.
   • proration_behavior (optional): create_prorations, none, or always_invoice.
   • payment_method_id (optional): the same test payment method.
   • This creates the first invoice for the current period.

4. Advance the clock to the next billing date. Tool: advance_stripe_test_clock

   • test_clock_id: the id from step 1.
   • frozen_time: a Unix timestamp (seconds) after the current frozen time. Advance is forward-only; you cannot move a clock backward. Pick a time just past the subscription's current_period_end to cross the renewal boundary.

5. Wait for the clock to settle, then verify.

   • advance_stripe_test_clock reports the clock status once, in its response text. Advancing is asynchronous. This MCP server does not expose a tool to retrieve or re-poll the clock, so you cannot programmatically watch it transition to ready.
   • If the response shows advancing, either wait a few seconds before proceeding, or ask the user to confirm the clock has settled in the Stripe Dashboard (test mode) before continuing.
   • Then confirm the new invoice for the renewed period was generated and has the expected amount and status. Inspect this in the Stripe Dashboard (test mode) or via the Stripe API, since the MCP does not expose an invoice-listing tool.

Notes

• frozen_time is always a Unix timestamp in seconds (not milliseconds).
• Customers created by this MCP are tagged with metadata.generator = stripe-testing-tools-mcp. The MCP cannot search customers by this tag, but it helps you locate them in the Stripe Dashboard or CLI; record the returned ids for programmatic cleanup.
• For cleanup after verification, see the stripe-test-data-lifecycle skill.
• For the full list of test-clock constraints, see the stripe-test-clock-constraints skill.