AutoPay Beta Foundation

Unavailable and not approved for production use.

Project Alpha supports client-initiated, one-time invoice payments. It does not currently expose or run AutoPay.

The repository contains dormant database tables and internal interfaces so a future implementation can be designed without reusing the unsafe legacy client flags. There are no AutoPay routes, pages, settings, emails, scheduled jobs, or enabled Stripe off-session operations.

Runtime Guard

AUTOPAY_BETA_ENABLED defaults to false and is read only from the environment. Even when explicitly set to true, the internal beta guard only opens in development or test. Production always fails closed.

The former auto_charge_recurring.php file is retained for historical development context, is absent from the installed crontab, and exits before loading payment logic unless the development-only guard passes.

Before Any Future Release

A production implementation requires independent legal and security review. At minimum, it must include:

• Separate, explicit consent to save a payment method and to make future charges
• Versioned, retainable authorization terms describing scope, timing, frequency, and amount calculation
• Email confirmation for broad or variable scopes
• Advance notices for variable charges where required
• Immediate online revocation plus an accessible offline cancellation method
• One-time, rate-limited recovery tokens that expose only payment preferences
• Stripe SetupIntent or equivalent mandate handling and correct merchant-initiated transaction flags
• Idempotent attempts, authentication recovery, receipts, refunds, disputes, and reconciliation
• Consumer/business classification with consumer-safe behavior for unknown clients

Reference material:

• Stripe SetupIntents and future payments
• CFPB Regulation E, 12 CFR 1005.10
• Applicable state automatic-renewal, privacy, breach-notification, surcharge, and record-retention requirements

These references are implementation context, not legal advice. Operators remain responsible for their own agreements and compliance review.