> ## 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. # Send a usage event > **Early access.** Not yet turned on for every account: until it is, this answers `404 not_found`. Build against it now and ask us to turn it on. Record one usage fact. Events are stored as sent and aggregated only when read, so a total is always recomputable from its events. **No Idempotency-Key is needed.** The event's own `identifier` dedupes: resending one returns **200** with the stored original, unchanged, whatever the resend carried. A new event returns **201**. Refusals are **422** with one of these codes: `meter_not_found`, `meter_archived`, `customer_not_found`, `timestamp_in_future` (more than 5 minutes ahead), `missing_property` (a `unique_count` meter's property is absent), `invalid_value` (a value that isn't a whole number from 0 to 1,000,000,000,000), `usage_period_closed` (the timestamp falls in a period that has already been invoiced), `subscription_paused` (the subscription that bills this meter was paused at the timestamp), or `invalid_field`. ## OpenAPI ````yaml /api/openapi.yaml post /meter-events 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: /meter-events: post: tags: - Usage summary: Send a usage event description: > **Early access.** Not yet turned on for every account: until it is, this answers `404 not_found`. Build against it now and ask us to turn it on. Record one usage fact. Events are stored as sent and aggregated only when read, so a total is always recomputable from its events. **No Idempotency-Key is needed.** The event's own `identifier` dedupes: resending one returns **200** with the stored original, unchanged, whatever the resend carried. A new event returns **201**. Refusals are **422** with one of these codes: `meter_not_found`, `meter_archived`, `customer_not_found`, `timestamp_in_future` (more than 5 minutes ahead), `missing_property` (a `unique_count` meter's property is absent), `invalid_value` (a value that isn't a whole number from 0 to 1,000,000,000,000), `usage_period_closed` (the timestamp falls in a period that has already been invoiced), `subscription_paused` (the subscription that bills this meter was paused at the timestamp), or `invalid_field`. operationId: createMeterEvent requestBody: required: true content: application/json: schema: $ref: '#/components/schemas/MeterEventRequest' examples: apiRequest: value: eventName: api.request customer: ctm_123 identifier: req_01J8ZQ timestamp: '2026-10-14T09:31:00Z' properties: endpoint: /v1/charges responses: '200': $ref: '#/components/responses/MeterEvent' '201': $ref: '#/components/responses/MeterEvent' '422': $ref: '#/components/responses/Error' components: schemas: MeterEventRequest: type: object required: - eventName - customer - identifier properties: eventName: type: string description: The meter's event name. `event_name` is accepted too. example: api.request customer: type: string description: A Bouclay customer ID, or the `externalRef` you gave the customer. example: ctm_123 identifier: type: string maxLength: 255 description: Your unique ID for this event. Resending it is safe. example: req_01J8ZQ timestamp: type: string format: date-time description: When it happened. Defaults to now; at most 5 minutes in the future. value: type: integer minimum: 0 maximum: 1000000000000 default: 1 description: >- The amount, for `sum`, `max`, and `last` meters that read `value`. Whole numbers only; pick a unit that makes it one. A meter with a `valueKey` reads that property instead, under the same bounds. properties: type: - object - 'null' additionalProperties: true maxProperties: 50 ResourceEnvelope: type: object required: - data - meta properties: data: type: object meta: $ref: '#/components/schemas/Meta' MeterEvent: type: object properties: identifier: type: string example: req_01J8ZQ eventName: type: string example: api.request meter: type: string example: mtr_123 customer: type: string example: ctm_123 timestamp: type: string format: date-time value: type: integer example: 1 properties: type: - object - 'null' additionalProperties: true status: type: string enum: - active - cancelled cancelledAt: type: - string - 'null' format: date-time createdAt: type: string format: date-time 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' Meta: type: object required: - requestId properties: requestId: type: string example: req_550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000 responses: MeterEvent: description: >- Meter event response. 201 when stored, 200 when the identifier was already stored. content: application/json: schema: allOf: - $ref: '#/components/schemas/ResourceEnvelope' - type: object properties: data: $ref: '#/components/schemas/MeterEvent' 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.