This guide covers creating a Stripe account, verifying your email, and locating the API key and webhook secret you'll use when adding a Stripe merchant account in Perno Orchestration.
What is a Stripe account for?
A Stripe account is what you need before you can connect Stripe as a merchant account gateway in Perno Orchestration - Stripe is where the API key and webhook secret used in that connection are generated. New accounts start in a sandbox, a test environment where you can explore the dashboard and generate test API keys without moving any real money; you switch to a live account only when you're ready to go live.
Creating your Stripe account
- Go to stripe.com and click Dashboard in the top-right corner.
- Fill in your Email, Full name, and Password, choose your Country, then click Create account.
Verifying your email
Stripe sends a verification link to the address you signed up with. Opening it confirms the address is yours and completes account creation:
Setting up your business profile
- Enter your Business name and Business location, then click Continue.
- Optionally add your Website and a short description of what your business does. Click Continue, or Skip if you'd rather fill this in later.
Choosing how to set up Stripe
Stripe offers two ways to get started: setting up manually in the Dashboard, or starting with an AI coding tool. Select Set up in the Dashboard and click Continue:
Entering your sandbox
Your new account opens in a sandbox - a safe environment for testing where no real money moves. Once you've explored the sandbox and completed your setup, you can switch to a live account when you're ready to accept real payments. Click Go to sandbox to continue:
Finding your API keys
Stripe generates a publishable key and a secret key for your account automatically. You can reach them in either of two ways:
- From the Home page, the API keys panel shown after your first login links directly to them.
- Or click the Settings (gear) icon in the top navigation bar, then select Developers under Personal settings.
- On the Developers page, click Manage API keys next to the API keys row.
Reviewing your API keys
The API keys page lists two sections: Restricted keys, which you create yourself with specific access limits, and Standard keys, which Stripe generates automatically and which have full API access:
Scroll down to see both Standard keys in full - the Publishable key and the Secret key:
Treat the Secret key like a password - anyone with it can act on your account, so don't share it or commit it to your code. When adding a Stripe merchant account in Perno Orchestration, this Secret key is what you enter as API data #1.
Finding your webhook secret
The webhook secret used for API data #2 isn't on the API keys page - it's generated separately, per event destination, in Workbench.
- Open Workbench and switch to the Webhooks tab, then click + Add destination. Alternatively, use the Search bar in the top navigation, type webhooks, and select Create a webhook under Workbench.
Selecting events
- Choose the Event destination scope: Your account for events from resources in your own account, or Connected accounts for events from resources inside accounts connected to yours. For a single-account setup like a Perno merchant account, choose Your account.
- Choose the API version the destination should use, then pick which Events to listen to - check Select all to receive every event, or search for specific ones. Stripe warns that selecting a large number of events can affect performance; for analytics rather than integration triggers, it points you to Data Pipeline instead. Click Continue.
Choosing destination type
Stripe can send events to a webhook endpoint, Amazon EventBridge, or Azure Event Grid. Select Webhook endpoint and click Continue:
Configuring your destination
- Enter a Destination name, the Endpoint URL events should be sent to, and an optional Description. Choose Snapshot payload, Thin payload, or both - Stripe creates a separate destination, each with its own webhook secret, for every payload style you select. Click Continue.
- On Review and finish, each destination you configured is listed with its settings.
Copying the signing secret
Once a destination is created, its Signing secret - the webhook secret - is shown in full, one destination at a time. Copy it now: revisiting it later only shows a masked value. Click Done once you've copied it:
If you need it again later, open Workbench > Webhooks, select the destination, and find Signing secret under its Overview tab. It's masked by default - click the eye icon to reveal it, or the refresh icon to roll a new secret, which invalidates the old one:
When adding a Stripe merchant account in Perno Orchestration, this webhook secret is what you enter as API data #2.