Read the chain, not one object

A Stripe answer is only as good as the objects it was read from. Every question about money that already moved has an exact object chain behind it, and the chain is short. Walk it.

1. Say which account and which mode you are in

Start with get_stripe_account_info. Live mode and a sandbox are separate worlds that share nothing: an id created in one returns "No such charge" in the other, which reads like a deleted record rather than a wrong environment. Name the account and the mode in your answer so the user can tell whether you looked where they meant.

2. Let the id prefix tell you what you are holding

Stripe ids are typed. ch_ is a charge, pi_ a PaymentIntent, cus_ a customer, in_ an invoice, sub_ a subscription, cs_ a Checkout Session, re_ a refund, dp_ a dispute, po_ a payout, txn_ a balance transaction. Use stripe_api_search to find the right method, stripe_api_details to get its real parameters, then stripe_api_read. Never invent a field name: the details tool exists so you do not have to.

3. For a failure, read the decline, not the status

status: "requires_payment_method" says nothing a user can act on. The cause lives in two places:

• The PaymentIntent's last_payment_error: the decline code and message.
• The charge's outcome: network_status, reason, risk_level, seller_message, which is the sentence written for you to pass on, and advice_code.

Read the retry decision off advice_code, not off the decline code. It has three values and each is Stripe's advice rather than a verdict: try_again_later means a retry may work, do_not_try_again means Stripe advises against reusing the card for this transaction, and confirm_card_data means some of the submitted card details are wrong and the customer should check them against the card. Stale details on a stored payment method trigger that one as readily as a typo does. The decline code answers a different question, and most of them are vague on purpose: do_not_honor and generic_decline both mean "the issuer declined and did not say why", so calling either permanent is a guess the advice code already settles.

To tell an issuer decline from a payment Stripe Radar blocked before the issuer ever saw it, read outcome.type: blocked with a reason such as highest_risk_level is Radar. A network_status of not_sent_to_network says only that the network never saw it, and a risk_level is attached to payments Radar allowed as well, so neither one attributes the failure on its own.

4. Follow the chain the question actually asks about

• "Why this amount?" is invoice to subscription to price to product, plus discount and tax on the invoice. The number on the invoice is the end of a chain, not a fact in itself.
• "What did we keep?" is charge to balance_transaction, which carries fee and net. The charge amount is not revenue, and that net is not the end of it either: a refund and a dispute each create their own balance transaction, so a refunded charge still reports the original net. Net off its refunds and disputes before reporting a figure, and page the refund list to the end: the charge embeds only the first ten, so a charge refunded in many parts overstates what you kept until has_more is false.
• "Where is the money?" is get_balance_summary or payout to balance transactions, not the sum of recent charges.
• "Is this customer current?" is subscription status plus current_period_end plus cancel_at_period_end. An active subscription with cancel_at_period_end: true is a churn you would otherwise report as healthy.

5. Convert amounts deliberately

Stripe amounts are integers in the smallest currency unit. amount: 2000 in USD is $20.00, but JPY has no minor unit, so amount: 2000 is 2000 yen, and dividing by 100 would under-report it by a hundredfold. Read the currency field, then convert. State the currency in every figure you report.

6. Answer with ids, mode, and the window

Quote the id of every object you read, the mode you read it in, and the time window for anything aggregated. For a count or a rate, prefer stripe_analytics over paging a list yourself: a list request defaults to 10 items and newest first, so "I found 10 charges" is a page size, not a finding.

Anti-patterns

• Mixing modes. A sandbox id in a live-mode question returns a clean, confident 404. Check the mode before you believe the absence.
• Reporting the charge amount as revenue. The fee lands on the charge's balance transaction; a refund or a dispute lands on its own, and neither rewrites the first one.
• Trusting a list default. Lists are paginated; an unbounded "how many" answered from one page is wrong without saying so.
• Explaining a decline from status. The actionable text is in outcome.seller_message and last_payment_error.
• Reading one object and inferring the rest. A subscription's price is not the invoice total once a coupon, proration, or tax exists.