Today we are releasing the public beta of the @stripe extension for @code, which brings Stripe inside your editor. Let me give you some background on why we built this extension, what it does, and where we are going with our developer tools.

https://t.co/FyyHVNQtWA

A thread 🧵

By bringing Stripe inside code editors, we move Stripe-specific information inside the context where developers already are when they build. We believe this will reduce context switching, reduce friction, and make it faster to integrate, build, and test with Stripe.
We decided to start with VS Code, one of the most popular code editors, and build an extension that would bring in a range of common workflows through a new Stripe panel in the activity bar and a set of custom commands.

Let me walk you through the features:
🛠 Webhooks can be burdensome to work with, so we made it easy to forward webhooks events to your local box. You can trigger events to test - this is integrated with the VS Code debugger so you can easily set breakpoints and step through your code.
📑 Sometimes when you’re integrating events, it's hard to know what the payloads will look like. You can now see the most recent events, and we’ll fetch the full event payload as JSON if you click on it, so you can easily see the properties — all without leaving the editor! 🔥
🗝 Managing API keys can be challenging, and sometimes we forget to remove our hardcoded secrets, which can have dramatic consequences.

So we'll now analyze and lint your code and show you warnings if you leave a hardcoded API key behind by mistake. ✨
📡 Sometimes things go wrong and you need to access the most recent logs to debug things. To make it easier we are bringing you log-streaming directly inside the editor. Simply run the command and get the logs streamed to your editor.
👩‍💻 When integrating Stripe, sometimes you need to look up code examples in our documentation.

Code snippets brings code examples from our docs into the editor, so you have less code to write and everything in one place.
📚 API References are essential to learning about APIs, so we brought you integrated API ref links directly inside the editor. Hover over a method when using our SDKs, and VS Code will link to the method in our API ref.
🖥 Sometimes you need to access the Stripe Dashboard, so we added commands to quickly open the Dashboard's most commonly used sections. Bam!
We are just starting to scratch the surface of what it means to bring Stripe closer to your source code and inside your editor.

What would you like to see in your favorite developer tool? What would improve your developer experience with Stripe?

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I think about this a lot, both in IT and civil infrastructure. It looks so trivial to “fix” from the outside. In fact, it is incredibly draining to do the entirely crushing work of real policy changes internally. It’s harder than drafting a blank page of how the world should be.


I’m at a sort of career crisis point. In my job before, three people could contain the entire complexity of a nation-wide company’s IT infrastructure in their head.

Once you move above that mark, it becomes exponentially, far and away beyond anything I dreamed, more difficult.

And I look at candidates and know-everything’s who think it’s all so easy. Or, people who think we could burn it down with no losses and start over.

God I wish I lived in that world of triviality. In moments, I find myself regretting leaving that place of self-directed autonomy.

For ten years I knew I could build something and see results that same day. Now I’m adjusting to building something in my mind in one day, and it taking a year to do the due-diligence and edge cases and documentation and familiarization and roll-out.

That’s the hard work. It’s not technical. It’s not becoming a rockstar to peers.
These people look at me and just see another self-important idiot in Security who thinks they understand the system others live. Who thinks “bad” designs were made for no reason.
Who wasn’t there.
Ok, I’ve told this story a few times, but maybe never here. Here we go. 🧵👇


I was about 6. I was in the car with my mother. We were driving a few hours from home to go to Orlando. My parents were letting me audition for a tv show. It would end up being my first job. I was very excited. But, in the meantime we drove and listened to Rush’s show.

There was some sort of trivia question they posed to the audience. I don’t remember what the riddle was, but I remember I knew the answer right away. It was phrased in this way that was somehow just simpler to see from a kid’s perspective. The answer was CAROUSEL. I was elated.

My mother was THRILLED. She insisted that we call Into the show using her “for emergencies only” giant cell phone. It was this phone:


I called in. The phone rang for a while, but someone answered. It was an impatient-sounding dude. The screener. I said I had the trivia answer. He wasn’t charmed, I could hear him rolling his eyes. He asked me what it was. I told him. “Please hold.”

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