Stripe Link CLI Skill

Wraps @stripe/link-cli so Hermes can complete purchases on the user's behalf using one-time-use virtual cards or Shared Payment Tokens (SPT). Every spend is gated by an in-app approval in the Link mobile/web app — Hermes cannot self-approve.

US-only at the moment (Link account requirement). Windows is not supported by the upstream CLI — this skill is gated

[linux, macos]

When to Use

Trigger phrases:

"buy X", "pay for X", "make a purchase", "complete checkout"
"get me a card", "I need a payment method"
"log in to Link", "connect my Link wallet"
HTTP 402 response from a merchant API with
```
www-authenticate: ... method="stripe"
```

If the user wants a paid API call (HTTP 402, no checkout form), the

card

path is wrong — use SPT via this same skill, or hand off to the

mpp-agent

skill.

Prerequisites

Node.js 20+ available on
```
PATH
```
(
```
node --version
```
)
US-based (Link account requirement)

The Link account, payment method, and spend-approval app do NOT need to be set up before Hermes attempts to pay — the CLI walks the user through them on first run:

A Link account at https://app.link.com — created/linked during first
```
link-cli
```
auth
At least one payment method — added during first run at https://app.link.com/wallet
The Link mobile/web app — opened to approve the first spend request when it's made

No env vars required — auth state is stored locally by the CLI under its own config directory.

Install

Install once, globally:

npm install -g @stripe/link-cli

Or invoke ad-hoc via

npx @stripe/link-cli

. The skill below uses the installed

link-cli

form.

How to Run

All commands run through the

terminal

tool. The CLI auto-detects non-TTY callers and emits compact

toon

output by default — fine for the model. Pass

--format json

if a step needs structured fields.

Discover commands:

link-cli --llms-full

. Get a command's schema before invoking:

link-cli <command> --schema

Procedure

1. Check / establish auth

link-cli auth status

If not authenticated, log in with a clear client name (this label shows in the user's Link app):

link-cli auth login --client-name "Hermes" --interval 5 --timeout 300

The

--interval

--timeout

form polls inline so the agent doesn't need to manage a

_next

step. Print the verification URL + phrase to the user and wait for the CLI to return.

Background-polling pattern (when not using inline flags): If you run

auth login

without

--interval

--timeout

(or with

pty=true

), it returns immediately with a

verification_url

phrase

, and a

_next.command

auth status --interval 5 --max-attempts 60

. Start that poll as a background terminal process with

notify_on_complete=true

so you get notified when the user approves:

link-cli auth status --interval 5 --max-attempts 60
# → run with: background=true, notify_on_complete=true, timeout=330

Print the verification URL and phrase to the user immediately — don't wait for them to ask. The background poll will notify you when auth succeeds.

Do not proceed past this step until
auth status
confirms login.

2. Evaluate the merchant before creating a spend request

Decide the credential type:

Merchant surface	`--credential-type`
Standard web checkout form / Stripe Elements	`card` (default)
Returns HTTP 402 with `method="stripe"` in `www-authenticate`	`shared_payment_token`
Returns HTTP 402 without `method="stripe"`	unsupported — stop

For 402 responses, do NOT decode the challenge manually. Pass the raw header:

link-cli mpp decode --challenge '<full WWW-Authenticate header>'

This validates the challenge and extracts the network ID + decoded request body.

3. List payment methods + shipping

link-cli payment-methods list
link-cli shipping-address list

Use the first entry unless the user specifies otherwise. The

id

from

payment-methods list

is the

--payment-method-id

in the next step.

4. Create the spend request

Confirm the final total with the user before issuing this command. Amounts are in cents.

link-cli spend-request create \
  --payment-method-id <pm_id> \
  --merchant-name "<name>" \
  --merchant-url "<url>" \
  --context "<what is being purchased and why — MUST be ≥100 characters or the CLI returns VALIDATION_ERROR too_small>" \
  --amount <cents> \
  --line-item "name:<item>,unit_amount:<cents>,quantity:1" \
  --total "type:total,display_text:Total,amount:<cents>" \
  --request-approval

For MPP merchants add

--credential-type shared_payment_token

--request-approval

sends the approval push notification to the user's Link app and returns immediately with

status: "pending_approval"

. It does NOT poll — the response includes a

_next.command

(

spend-request retrieve <id> --interval 2 --max-attempts 300

) that you must run separately to poll for approval.

Best pattern: After

create --request-approval

returns, immediately start a background

retrieve

call that combines polling + card retrieval in one shot (see Section 5). This eliminates the gap between approval and retrieval that causes card expiry.

5. Retrieve the credential — SECURELY

Do not print card details to stdout. Use

--output-file

so the PAN never enters the agent's transcript or logs.

All five options are required by the schema even though they appear to have defaults — omitting any of

--timeout

--interval

--max-attempts

--force

, or

--include

can cause a

terminated

error. Always pass all five explicitly:

Combined poll + retrieve (preferred): Combines approval polling and card retrieval in one background call. Run this immediately after

create --request-approval

returns — it polls until the user approves, then retrieves the card in the same process, eliminating the approval-to-retrieval gap:

link-cli spend-request retrieve <lsrq_id> \
  --include card \
  --output-file /tmp/link-card.json \
  --timeout 600 \
  --interval 2 \
  --max-attempts 0 \
  --force \
  --format json
# → run with: background=true, notify_on_complete=true, timeout=660

Post-approval retrieve (only when poll already confirmed approval): If you already polled separately (e.g. via a background process) and confirmed

status: "approved"

, retrieve the card with zero interval:

link-cli spend-request retrieve <lsrq_id> \
  --include card \
  --output-file /tmp/link-card.json \
  --timeout 30 \
  --interval 0 \
  --max-attempts 0 \
  --force \
  --format json

The file is written with

perms; stdout shows only redacted fields (brand, last4, expiry) plus a

card_output_file

path.

6. Use the credential

For web checkout: hand the file path to the user, OR pass it to a browser-driving tool that fills the form directly from disk. Never
```
read_file
```
or
```
cat
```
the card file into the agent's reasoning context.

For MPP merchants:

link-cli mpp pay <merchant-url> \
  --spend-request-id <lsrq_id> \
  --method POST \
  --data '<json body>'

7. Clean up

Delete the card file as soon as the purchase is done:

rm -f /tmp/link-card.json

Optional: run as an MCP server instead

@stripe/link-cli --mcp

exposes the same commands as MCP tools over stdio. To register it with Hermes' native MCP:

hermes mcp add stripe-link --command "npx" --args "@stripe/link-cli --mcp"

Then

hermes mcp list

should show

stripe-link

. The same approval rules apply — MCP doesn't bypass the Link app approval step.

Pitfalls

US-only. Outside the US,
```
auth login
```
will fail. Tell the user, don't keep retrying.
--context
must be ≥100 characters. The CLI returns
```
VALIDATION_ERROR / too_small
```
if shorter. Write a detailed context string (what, why, who) — not a one-liner.
--request-approval
does NOT poll. It returns immediately with
```
pending_approval
```
and a
```
_next.command
```
. You must separately poll via
```
retrieve --interval 2 --max-attempts 300
```
(background, notify_on_complete). The previous skill text that said it "polls until they approve or deny" was wrong.
One-time cards expire ~90 seconds after approval. The window between the user approving in the Link app and you retrieving the card is very short. If the card expires, you must recreate the entire spend request and get a new approval. To avoid this: (a) use the combined poll+retrieve pattern in Section 5 so there's no gap, or (b) if you polled separately, retrieve the card immediately after seeing
```
status: "approved"
```
— do not do any other work in between.
retrieve
requires explicit options or it errors with
terminated
. Even though the schema shows defaults, omitting
```
--timeout
```
,
```
--interval
```
,
```
--max-attempts
```
,
```
--force
```
, or
```
--include
```
can fail. Always pass all five. See Section 5 for exact flags.
Token refresh failures during retrieval. If
```
retrieve
```
fails with
```
Token refresh failed (400)
```
, you need to re-auth (
```
auth login --interval 5 --timeout 300
```
) and retry. But the card may expire during re-auth — which means recreating the spend request. This is why the combined poll+retrieve pattern is strongly preferred: it retrieves the card as part of the same process that detects approval, so no token refresh gap exists.
Card PAN must never enter agent context. Use
```
--output-file
```
every time. If you've already retrieved without it, immediately
```
link-cli auth logout
```
is not enough — the card is one-time-use but rotate hygiene matters.
--request-approval
blocks until the user acts. If the user is asleep, the CLI will hit its timeout. Set expectations.
Multi-step
_next
commands. Some commands return
```
_next.command
```
that must be executed to continue. When in doubt, prefer the inline-polling flags (
```
--interval
```
/
```
--timeout
```
).
Output format defaults to
toon
in non-TTY mode. Fine for prose, but if a downstream step needs to parse a specific field, pass
```
--format json
```
.
Don't default to
card
. The merchant-evaluation step (Section 2) exists because picking the wrong credential type fails the purchase silently or leaks more data than needed.
spend-request list
only shows active requests by default. Use
```
--include-history
```
to see expired/denied/terminal-state requests. Useful for debugging.

Verification

link-cli --version && link-cli auth status

Exit code 0 means installed and logged in.

Reference

```
references/error-fixes.md
```
— Session-verified error→fix log with exact commands: context ≥100 chars,
```
terminated
```
error, token refresh failure, card expiry, and the full correct end-to-end sequence.

stripe-link-cli

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content