Use Stripe Issuing's real-time authorization webhook with direct webhook response to synchronously approve or decline each agent-initiated card transaction against custom business rules

In-depth guide

Steps

1. Configure a real-time authorization webhook endpoint that receives issuing_authorization.request events for cards issued to your agent purchasing flow
2. Implement the direct webhook response pattern (the current recommended approach, since the separate approve/decline API methods are deprecated) so your endpoint's HTTP response itself carries the approve/decline decision
3. Apply your agent-specific business logic within the response window -- merchant category checks, per-transaction cap checks, anomaly signals -- and respond before Stripe's timeout
4. Understand that if you don't respond within roughly 2 seconds, Stripe falls back to your configured webhook-timeout behavior (approve or decline by default setting) rather than waiting indefinitely
5. On approval, note that Stripe places a hold against your Issuing balance until the authorization is captured, voided, or expires uncaptured -- reconcile these holds in your ledger
6. Test failure modes explicitly: what happens to an agent purchase if your webhook endpoint is unreachable or slow, since that determines whether transactions fail open or fail closed