> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.bouclay.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Preview a subscription item change > Prices the same change `PATCH /subscriptions/{subscription}/items/{item}` would make, without making it. An increase is prorated and billed now (`billsNow: true`); a decrease waits for the next renewal and bills nothing now, or with `prorationBehavior: always` shows the credit for the unused time (`credit`) and the invoice for the rest of the period (`totals`), which spends that credit when it goes to the balance. Amounts are in major units. Needs only `subscriptions:read`. ## OpenAPI ````yaml /api/openapi.yaml post /subscriptions/{subscription}/items/{item}/preview openapi: 3.1.0 info: title: Bouclay API version: 1.0.0 summary: Integrator API for Bouclay subscriptions, invoices, payments, and webhooks. description: > Bouclay is managed recurring-billing infrastructure for African payment gateways. Integrators connect their own gateway account (Bachs, with Nomba, Paystack and Flutterwave in early access) and use this API to manage customers, catalog, subscriptions, entitlements, usage metering, invoices, payment-method checkout sessions, payments, and outbound event history. Bouclay never holds funds — every charge, refund, and payout happens on your own gateway account, with your own keys. Which gateway settles a given charge is Bouclay's concern, not yours: a stored card always charges through the gateway that issued its token. ## Early access Some of this API is documented ahead of its release, so you can build against it now. Those operations carry an **Early access** badge, and so do the request fields that depend on them (graduated, volume and package pricing, usage-based prices, usage thresholds). Until a feature is turned on for your account, its endpoints answer `404 not_found`, its fields are refused with a `422`, and a restricted key cannot be given its scopes. Ask us to turn it on. Nothing you already rely on changes when it is. servers: - url: https://bouclay.com/api/v1 description: Production security: - SecretKeyAuth: [] tags: - name: Customers - name: Customer addresses - name: Payment methods - name: Entitlements description: >- Early access: answers `404 not_found` until it is turned on for your account. - name: Credits description: >- What a customer has left to spend. Money owed back to a customer is their balance, one per currency; their next invoice spends it after tax, like a payment, and collects the rest. Promotional credit you give is held in lots (credit grants), each with its own expiry; the next invoice spends it before tax, so it lowers the VAT like a discount. - name: Catalog - name: Payment links description: >- A shareable checkout page for one price, the same link a price's "Payment link" makes in the dashboard. Buyers enter their email and pay; a subscription price starts the subscription once paid. - name: Meters description: >- Early access: answers `404 not_found` until it is turned on for your account. - name: Usage description: >- Early access: answers `404 not_found` until it is turned on for your account. - name: Discounts description: >- Early access: answers `404 not_found` until it is turned on for your account. - name: Subscriptions - name: Invoices - name: Metrics description: >- Early access: answers `404 not_found` until it is turned on for your account. Revenue metrics measured from each subscription's monthly recurring amount (MRR). `active` and `past_due` subscriptions count; trials, pauses and metered usage do not. Amounts are major units, rates are percentages (105.25 means 105.25%), and currencies are never summed. - name: Credit notes description: >- A credit note corrects an issued invoice without changing it: "of this invoice, this much is no longer owed". Each one has its own number in an unbroken sequence (`{prefix}-CN-0001`) and never changes once issued. On an unpaid invoice the credit comes off `amountDue`; on a paid one it goes back to the customer, refunded to the card, added to the customer balance or settled outside Bouclay. What the customer balance paid of an invoice always goes back to the balance first. An invoice always satisfies `amountDue = total - amountPaid - amountCredited - balanceApplied`. Every refund also issues a credit note. - name: Payments - name: Refunds description: >- A refund goes back through the gateway that took the payment. Refund part of a payment and it stays `succeeded`; refund all of it and it becomes `refunded`. - name: Chargebacks description: >- A chargeback is a payment the customer's bank took back. Record one when your payment provider reports it, with the provider's dispute reference, then record how the dispute ended. While it is open, Bouclay doesn't charge or chase the subscription. A chargeback on a credit top-up takes back the unspent credit and its bonus; winning the dispute puts back exactly that. Uses the `refunds` scope. - name: Events - name: Checkout sessions - name: Portal sessions - name: Webhook endpoints paths: /subscriptions/{subscription}/items/{item}/preview: parameters: - $ref: '#/components/parameters/SubscriptionId' - $ref: '#/components/parameters/SubscriptionItemId' post: tags: - Subscriptions summary: Preview a subscription item change description: >- Prices the same change `PATCH /subscriptions/{subscription}/items/{item}` would make, without making it. An increase is prorated and billed now (`billsNow: true`); a decrease waits for the next renewal and bills nothing now, or with `prorationBehavior: always` shows the credit for the unused time (`credit`) and the invoice for the rest of the period (`totals`), which spends that credit when it goes to the balance. Amounts are in major units. Needs only `subscriptions:read`. operationId: previewSubscriptionItemChange parameters: - $ref: '#/components/parameters/IdempotencyKey' requestBody: required: true content: application/json: schema: type: object properties: quantity: type: integer minimum: 1 maximum: 1000 priceId: type: string prorationBehavior: type: string enum: - always - none - next_cycle description: >- Overrides the default: an increase is `always`, a decrease or removal is `next_cycle`. A decrease or removal with `always` lands now and credits the unused time through a credit note, to the customer balance when the period's invoice is paid, off what it owes when it is open; the rest of the period on the new price is then invoiced, spending that balance. Refused when nothing billed for the period is left to credit. `none` applies now and bills or credits nothing. remove: type: boolean description: >- Remove the item instead of changing it. Waits for the next renewal unless `prorationBehavior` says otherwise. responses: '200': description: What the change would bill now. content: application/json: schema: allOf: - $ref: '#/components/schemas/ResourceEnvelope' - type: object properties: data: $ref: '#/components/schemas/SubscriptionItemChangePreview' '422': $ref: '#/components/responses/Error' components: parameters: SubscriptionId: name: subscription in: path required: true schema: type: string example: sub_123 SubscriptionItemId: name: item in: path required: true schema: type: string example: si_123 IdempotencyKey: name: Idempotency-Key in: header required: true schema: type: string minLength: 1 maxLength: 255 description: >- Required for POST and PATCH requests. Replays identical method + path + body requests and rejects mismatched re-use. schemas: ResourceEnvelope: type: object required: - data - meta properties: data: type: object meta: $ref: '#/components/schemas/Meta' SubscriptionItemChangePreview: type: object properties: object: type: string enum: - subscription_item_change_preview behavior: type: string enum: - always - none - next_cycle description: >- `always` bills the prorated difference now, `none` applies now and bills nothing (a trial), `next_cycle` waits for the next renewal. billsNow: type: boolean isCredit: type: boolean description: True when the change made now credits unused time. currency: type: string credit: description: The credit note a decrease made now issues for the unused time. type: - object - 'null' properties: amount: $ref: '#/components/schemas/MajorAmount' destination: type: string enum: - balance - invoice description: >- `balance` when the period's invoice is paid, `invoice` (off what it owes) when it is open. lines: type: array items: type: object properties: description: type: string amount: $ref: '#/components/schemas/MajorAmount' totals: type: object properties: subtotal: $ref: '#/components/schemas/MajorAmount' discountTotal: $ref: '#/components/schemas/MajorAmount' grantApplied: $ref: '#/components/schemas/MajorAmount' description: >- Credit the invoice would spend before tax (promotional, and prepaid taxed when bought). taxTotal: $ref: '#/components/schemas/MajorAmount' total: $ref: '#/components/schemas/MajorAmount' balanceApplied: type: number description: >- What the customer's balance would pay, in major units. Negative when the invoice would collect a debt carried from an earlier invoice. amountDue: $ref: '#/components/schemas/MajorAmount' Meta: type: object required: - requestId properties: requestId: type: string example: req_550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000 MajorAmount: type: - number - 'null' minimum: 0 description: Major currency units. For example, 15000 means NGN 15,000. ErrorResponse: type: object required: - error - meta properties: error: type: object required: - type - code - detail properties: type: type: string enum: - request_error - api_error description: >- `api_error` with code `internal_error` (HTTP 500) means the fault is ours: retry with the same Idempotency-Key. example: request_error code: type: string enum: - authentication_failed - permission_denied - invalid_field - invalid_cursor - idempotency_conflict - meter_not_found - meter_archived - customer_not_found - timestamp_in_future - usage_period_closed - subscription_paused - missing_property - invalid_value - conflict - subscription_suspended - no_upcoming_invoice - not_found - request_error - internal_error detail: type: string errors: type: array items: type: object required: - field - message properties: field: type: string message: type: string meta: $ref: '#/components/schemas/Meta' responses: Error: description: Structured API error. content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/ErrorResponse' securitySchemes: SecretKeyAuth: type: http scheme: bearer bearerFormat: '{sk|rk}_{mode}_{random}' description: > Use a Bouclay secret key (`sk_test_...`, `sk_live_...`) or restricted key (`rk_test_...`, `rk_live_...`). A secret key can call every endpoint. A restricted key can only call the endpoints its scopes cover. A scope is `{resource}:{access}`, for example `customers:read` or `refunds:write`, and write includes read. `GET` requests need read access and everything else needs write, except `POST /subscriptions/{id}/items/{item}/preview`, which only needs `subscriptions:read`. A request outside the key's scopes gets `403 permission_denied` naming the missing scope, and its `Idempotency-Key` is not used up. | Resource | Endpoints | Access | | --- | --- | --- | | `customers` | customers, their addresses and payment methods | read, write | | `entitlements` | `/customers/{id}/entitlements` | read | | `credits` | `/customers/{id}/credit-balance`, credit purchases, credit grants, auto-reloads, credit holds (committing one records its usage) | read, write | | `catalog` | products, plans, prices | read, write | | `meters` | meters | read, write | | `usage` | meter events, `/customers/{id}/usage` | read, write | | `discounts` | discounts | read | | `subscriptions` | subscriptions | read, write | | `invoices` | invoices | read, write | | `credit_notes` | credit notes, `POST /invoices/{id}/credit-notes` (a refund to the card also needs `refunds:write`) | read, write | | `payments` | payments | read | | `refunds` | refunds, `POST /payments/{id}/refunds`, chargebacks and their outcome | read, write | | `checkout_sessions` | checkout sessions | read, write | | `portal_sessions` | portal sessions | write | | `events` | events | read | | `webhook_endpoints` | webhook endpoints | read, write | | `metrics` | metrics | read | Publishable keys (`pk_...`) are rejected by server-side API endpoints. A key's mode scopes what it can see and charge: a test key can never reach a live card. ```` This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.