/metronome

name: metronome
description: >-
  Guides Metronome usage-based billing integration decisions — event ingestion
  (single and batch, idempotency, billable metrics), contract design (rate
  cards, overrides, dimensional pricing, products), invoicing lifecycle (grace
  periods, finalization, Stripe sync), credit and commit management (prepaid,
  postpaid, thresholds, auto-recharge), and Stripe integration (arrears
  invoicing, tax providers, line item limits). Use when building, modifying, or
  reviewing any Metronome integration — including ingesting usage events,
  creating contracts or rate cards, managing credits and commits, configuring
  invoicing, or syncing invoices with Stripe Billing.

Metronome API base: `https://api.metronome.com`. Authenticate with a Bearer token in the `Authorization` header. Always use Contracts (not legacy Plans) for new integrations.

Integration routing

| Building… | Recommended API | Details | | --- | --- | --- | | Ingesting usage events | `POST /v1/ingest` (batch) | [Send usage events](https://docs.metronome.com/guides/events/send-usage-events.md), the [API quickstart](https://docs.metronome.com/guides/get-started/api-quickstart.md), the [Ingest API reference](https://docs.metronome.com/api-reference/usage/ingest-events.md), and [Set ingest aliases](https://docs.metronome.com/api-reference/customers/create-or-update-customer-ingest-aliases.md) | | Defining what to measure | Billable Metrics API | [Create billable metrics](https://docs.metronome.com/guides/implement-metronome/core-concepts/create-billable-metrics.md) | | Enterprise pricing agreements | Contracts + Rate Cards | [Provision a customer contract](https://docs.metronome.com/guides/implement-metronome/core-concepts/provision-contract.md), [Create and manage rate cards](https://docs.metronome.com/guides/implement-metronome/core-concepts/create-manage-rate-cards.md), and the [Create a contract](https://docs.metronome.com/api-reference/contracts/create-a-contract.md) and [Add rates](https://docs.metronome.com/api-reference/rate-cards/add-rates.md) API references | | Mid-term contract changes | Contract Edits | [Edit a contract](https://docs.metronome.com/guides/pricing-packaging/make-pricing-changes/edit-contract.md), [Contract edits and overrides](https://docs.metronome.com/guides/pricing-packaging/make-pricing-changes/edit-or-override-a-contract.md), and [Manage contract lifecycle](https://docs.metronome.com/guides/customers-billing/manage-customers/manage-customer-lifecycle.md) | | Invoice lifecycle and finalization | Invoices API | [How Metronome invoices work](https://docs.metronome.com/guides/implement-metronome/core-concepts/how-invoicing-works.md) | | Prepaid or postpaid commitments and one-off top-ups | Commits + Credits | [Apply credits and commits to contracts](https://docs.metronome.com/guides/pricing-packaging/apply-credits-and-commits/create-a-pre-paid-commit.md) and [Payment-gated commits](https://docs.metronome.com/guides/pricing-packaging/apply-credits-and-commits/manual-payment-gated-commits.md) | | Syncing invoices to Stripe | Stripe billing provider config | [Invoice with Stripe](https://docs.metronome.com/integrations/invoice-integrations/stripe.md) | | Prepaid balances, auto-recharge, spend alerts, and thresholds | Notifications API | [Set prepaid balance thresholds](https://docs.metronome.com/guides/customers-billing/optimize-customer-experience/prepaid-balance-thresholds.md), [Enforce spend thresholds](https://docs.metronome.com/guides/customers-billing/optimize-customer-experience/set-customer-spend-control.md), and [Threshold notifications](https://docs.metronome.com/guides/pricing-packaging/apply-credits-and-commits/alerts.md) |

Read the linked page before answering any integration question or writing code; the links return plain Markdown. If no row fits, use the [documentation index](https://docs.metronome.com/llms.txt) to find the right page, and append `.md` to the page URL to fetch it as Markdown.

Critical rules

• *Always read the linked documentation page before naming a Metronome endpoint, field, or amount.* Endpoint paths, request shapes, and units can be misremembered; the routing table above points to the page for each task.
• *Always use Contracts*, not legacy Plans, for new customers. Plans are deprecated and lack rate card overrides, commits, and flexible scheduling. An existing Plans integration keeps working: don’t propose migrating it unless asked, and when migrating move credit balances with `POST /v1/credits/migrateToContracts`.
• *Always use Edits* (`POST /v2/contracts/edit`), not deprecated Amendments (`/v1/contracts/amend`), for mid-term changes to a contract (new products, commits, overrides). Edits are the actively invested path and required for v2 subscription features. Create a new contract with `transition: {type: "renewal", from_contract_id}` only for renewals.
• *Always use batch ingestion* (`POST /v1/ingest` with a bare JSON array of 1 to 100 event objects as the request body, not wrapped in an object) for production workloads. Single-event ingestion is acceptable only for testing. A `200` means the events were accepted, not rated: events whose `event_type` matches no billable metric are stored but excluded from usage, so create billable metrics before sending.
• *Always include a unique `transaction_id`* on every event, fixed when the event is recorded and re-sent unchanged on every retry: a UUID stored with the event, or a value derived from the source record. This is the idempotency key that prevents double-counting on retries; an ID regenerated per attempt defeats it.
• *Always deliver usage for a billing period before its grace period ends* (24 hours after `billing_period_end_date` by default). A finalized invoice ignores late events and can only be corrected by voiding and regenerating it; if your pipeline’s worst-case lag exceeds the grace period, ask Metronome support to lengthen it (it isn’t configurable through the