Tinker Payments Python SDK

Python 3.9+ SDK with automatic authentication, payments, subscriptions and signed webhooks. Keep secret keys on the server.

Installation

pip install tinker-payments

Quick Start

from tinker import TinkerClient
from tinker.exceptions import ApiError

client = TinkerClient("pk_test_xxx", "sk_test_xxx")

payment = client.transactions().initiate(
    {
        "amount": 1200,
        "currency": "KES",
        "gateway": "mpesa",
        "merchantReference": "ORDER-1001",
        "returnUrl": "https://merchant.example/payment/return",
        "customerPhone": "+254712345678",
    }
)

result = client.transactions().query(
    {
        "reference": "TP-REF-123",
        "gateway": "mpesa",
    }
)

Payments use currency units. Mpesa requires customerPhone; returnUrl is the browser destination, while webhooks are configured in the dashboard.

Configuration

Test key prefixes (pk_test_ or sk_test_) select https://sandbox-api.tinkerpayments.com/v1/; other keys select https://api.tinkerpayments.com/v1/. Override with TinkerClient(pk, sk, base_url="https://custom-host/v1"); pass session= for a requests-compatible transport.

Plan subscriptions

subs = client.subscriptions()

subs.create_plan(
    {
        "name": "Pro",
        "amount": 1000,
        "currency": "KES",
        "intervals": ["monthly"],
        "description": "Pro plan",
        "is_active": True,
    }
)

subs.list_plans()
subs.create(
    {
        "plan_id": "plan_123",
        "gateway": "stripe",
        "customer": {
            "external_customer_id": "cust_123",
            "email": "customer@example.com",
        },
    }
)
subs.list(plan_id="plan_123", external_customer_id="cust_123")
subs.cancel("sub_123")

Managed recurring billing

Checkout uses exact integer minor-unit prices (15000 = EUR 150.00), a month or year interval, and a quantity. The SDK does not convert prices or apply discounts. Responses are unwrapped data maps/objects.

from tinker import ManagedCheckout

billing = client.subscriptions()
billing.checkout(ManagedCheckout(
    external_customer_id="workspace-123", email="buyer@example.com", name="Buyer",
    currency="EUR", unit_amount=15000, quantity=3, interval="year",
    return_url="https://example.com/billing", idempotency_key="checkout-123",
))
billing.change_quantity("resource-id", 4, "quantity-123")
billing.set_cancel_at_renewal("resource-id", False, "resume-123")
billing.payment_method_portal("resource-id", "https://example.com/billing", "portal-123")
page = billing.billing_payment_history("resource-id", "", 0)
# After an uncertain command response, recover using the SAME key:
operation = billing.billing_operation("quantity-123")

Pass integers for minor-unit amounts, quantities and snapshots; do not convert through floating-point prices. ManagedCheckout is an exported dataclass.

Trials with a required payment method

Set trial_days (1 to 30) to collect a card at checkout and charge first when the trial ends. The SDK sends trial_days only when it is above 0, so checkouts without a trial keep working against servers released before trial support. A gateway without trial support returns HTTP 422 TRIAL_UNSUPPORTED with outcome: not_applied. Limiting a customer to one trial is the app's responsibility.

billing.checkout(ManagedCheckout(
    external_customer_id="workspace-123", email="buyer@example.com", name="Buyer",
    currency="EUR", unit_amount=15000, quantity=3, interval="year",
    return_url="https://example.com/billing", idempotency_key="checkout-456",
    trial_days=14,
))

Checkout and billing resource responses include a provider-neutral managed_state map: status (pending, trialing, active, past_due, paused or canceled), trial_ends_at, current_period_end and cancel_at_period_end. Read it instead of raw provider fields; grant access while status is trialing or active and current_period_end is in the future. Managed subscription webhooks carry billing_status and trial_ends_at, and subscription.trial_will_end arrives up to three days before the trial ends. The trial's €0 invoice sends invoice.paid with amount 0 and is not a payment.

Use a stable key per mutation and reuse it with the same payload after a lost response. Recover through the operation lookup; missing or pending results remain uncertain. Only an explicit outcome of not_applied confirms no mutation.

The payment-method portal changes payment details only; quantity, price and overdue invoice payment are separate actions. It requires an app-owned managed subscription with a dedicated customer. Reuse the operation key after a lost response and use a new key for a deliberately new session after expiry.

For payment history, keep the returned snapshot across next_cursor pages until has_more is false. Amounts are integer minor units and timestamps are UTC RFC3339. History covers captured cash, tax-exclusive eligible amounts, refunds, and dispute principal withdrawals/reinstatements (reverses_id identifies the reversed withdrawal).

Quarantine items with reconciliation_reason and verify every page before committing a scan. The snapshot is an event cutoff, not an immutable provider snapshot: rescan from the first page to discover later adjustments, then apply facts idempotently by payment/adjustment ID. Zero-cash invoices advance pagination without an item. Processing/dispute fees are excluded from eligible principal; currency conversion and customer credits need explicit reconciliation.

Refunds, wallet withdrawals and checkout cancellation

The app owner must enable withdrawal requests in app settings. A payout is a withdrawal from the merchant's wallet to its own active, verified payout method. Amounts use currency units: withdrawing JPY 100 with a fee of 2 reserves 100 and pays 98. Obtain a quote and pass its fee_amount as expected_fee_amount; a fee conflict includes a refreshed quote in the structured API error. No method accepts arbitrary recipient banking details.

Supply a stable Idempotency-Key for every refund, payout or cancellation request. Keys are trimmed and must be 1–255 UTF-8 bytes. Reuse the same key and semantic request after transport failures; a changed request conflicts. A replay returns the original resource and fee snapshot. Start a new key for a new intended operation.

A refund's pending_review/approved state and a payout's pending_approval/approved state are not completion. Only refunded, paid or provider-confirmed cancelled establishes completion. Preserve cancellation outcome_unknown and poll by ID; do not blindly submit another request. Unsupported cancellation raises HTTP 422 CHECKOUT_CANCELLATION_UNSUPPORTED and retains the persisted request_id/status in error details. Lifecycle conflicts use HTTP 409; replaying a persisted rejection retains its 422/409 result.

Refund history includes refundable amounts and refund_capability. Cancellation history includes capability, the newest 100 requests and has_more; retrieve older known requests by ID. Payout listing accepts page, per_page (maximum 100), status and currency. Reads are scoped to the app; payout reads show only requests attributed to that app.

tx = client.transactions()
review = tx.refund(payment_id, {"reason": "requested_by_customer", "amount": 100}, "refund-order-42")
print(review["refund"]["status"])
payouts = client.payouts()
destinations = payouts.methods()
destination = next(method for method in destinations if method["status"] == "active" and method["is_verified"])
quote = payouts.quote({"payout_method_id": destination["id"], "amount": 100, "currency": destination["currency"]})
requested = payouts.request_payout({"payout_method_id": destination["id"], "amount": 100, "currency": destination["currency"], "expected_fee_amount": quote["fee_amount"]}, "withdrawal-42")
print(payouts.get(requested["withdrawal"]["id"])["status"])
try:
    result = tx.cancel_checkout(unpaid_payment_id, {"reason": "Customer left checkout"}, "cancel-order-42")
    print(tx.get_cancellation(unpaid_payment_id, result["cancellation"]["id"])["status"])
except ApiError as error:  # from tinker.exceptions import ApiError
    print(error.error_code, error.details)

transactions() also exposes refunds, get_refund and cancellations; payouts().list() accepts typed pagination filters. The public tinker.lifecycle module provides TypedDict request/result/resource schemas and Literal status/reason types. Client stubs expose the new manager; ApiError.details retains the complete response envelope and nested error.details.

Cancellation resources expose payment_conflict when later successful payment evidence conflicts with expiry. Treat successful payment as authoritative and use the refund workflow where appropriate.

Webhooks

event = client.webhooks().handle(raw_body)
if not client.webhooks().verify_signature(event, webhook_secret):
    raise ValueError("Invalid webhook signature")
transaction = event.to_transaction()  # None for setup/lifecycle events

Verify the signature before consuming fields or converting the event to a transaction; reuse the parsed event rather than reading the request body twice. Deduplicate by event ID. The SDK verifies HMAC-SHA256 over the envelope excluding security, using the server's field order, map ordering and escaping.

After verification, acknowledge setup.webhook_test (source: onboarding) with HTTP 200, 202 or 204; it needs no payment lookup or fulfillment. The signed lifecycle events refund.updated.v1, withdrawal.updated.v1 and checkout.cancellation.updated.v1 carry data.resource with source: payment. Their typed resources never convert into payment transactions. Poll request IDs if delivery is delayed.

Errors and response metadata

API errors retain http_status, error_code, provider_code, request_id, retry_after, outcome and the full envelope in details. Request IDs prefer the response body over X-Request-ID; Retry-After remains its original string. Non-JSON HTTP failures retain status/headers and an uncertain outcome. Only an explicit not_applied outcome confirms no mutation. Managers unwrap response data; use get_last_meta() for request metadata and client.get_last_auth_meta() for authentication metadata.

try:
    client.transactions().query({"reference": "TP-REF-123", "gateway": "mpesa"})
except ApiError as error:
    print(error.error_code, error.details)

Development

python -m pip install -e '.[dev]'
ruff check .
python -m unittest discover -s tests -v