Managed Billing & Clerk
Managed billing changes where ProdVerdict should apply today.
Current rule
ProdVerdict Access is strongest when the app owns custom billing state: Stripe or Paddle subscriptions, webhook handlers, database rows, and app access gates that can disagree.
Pure Clerk Billing apps are not the main current Access ICP. Clerk Billing manages plans and subscriptions in Clerk, separately from Stripe Billing, and Clerk documents that Clerk subscription state is not synced to Stripe Billing. Clerk also provides helpers for gating by plans and features.
Useful Clerk references:
Where ProdVerdict fits today
Use the shipped Access contract when any of these are true:
- Stripe or Paddle remains the billing source your app reconciles against.
- Your database stores custom paid access, plan, or entitlement columns.
- Webhooks or scheduled jobs update app access.
- You are migrating from local access flags to Stripe Entitlements.
Where ProdVerdict should not overclaim
Do not treat these as shipped today:
- Clerk as
source_of_truth. - A usage contract type.
- A Clerk-aware route-gate contract.
- Credits, seats, or deeper permission contracts.
Those are roadmap validation areas. They can be discussed in audits and product discovery, but they should not be shown as working YAML.
Planned validation areas
The audit funnel is designed to learn whether founders need repeat checks for:
- Clerk-aware route gates and feature gates.
- Usage limits and AI token spend.
- Credits and burndown rules.
- Seats and organization membership.
- Permission rules around paid features and admin actions.