canonical: https://jentic.com/apis/alma_france_api/alma # Alma France Api Alma Payments API Jentic publishes the only available OpenAPI specification for Alma Payments API, keeping it validated and agent-ready. The Alma Payments API creates and manages buy-now-pay-later payments for merchants, letting a customer split a purchase into installments while the merchant is paid upfront. It covers the full payment lifecycle: creating a payment, capturing or cancelling it, issuing refunds, checking installment eligibility, and sending payment links by SMS or email. Orders, customers, addresses, and balance transactions round out the merchant integration surface. ## For AI agents Create and manage Alma installment payments: capture, cancel, and refund transactions, check purchase eligibility, and send payment links by SMS or email. ## Scope Does not handle card network settlement, chargebacks, or accounting. Use for buy-now-pay-later installment payments only. ## Capabilities - Create installment payments and capture or cancel them across the payment lifecycle - Issue full or partial refunds against a completed payment - Check whether a purchase qualifies for buy-now-pay-later installments before checkout - Send a payment link to a customer by SMS or email - Track order status and shipment updates tied to a payment - Retrieve balance transactions and generate data exports for reconciliation ## Use cases ### Agent-Driven Installment Checkout An AI commerce agent offers buy-now-pay-later at checkout by creating an Alma payment, then confirming capture once the order ships. Through Jentic the agent searches for the payment-creation operation, loads its input schema, and completes the flow without hand-wiring Alma's auth. Alma pays the merchant upfront while the shopper repays in installments. Example prompt: Create an Alma payment for a shopper's cart, return the payment link, and capture the payment after the order ships ### Installment Eligibility Check Before showing pay-later options, a merchant checks whether a given cart qualifies for Alma installment plans. The eligibility endpoint returns the available plans and their terms so the storefront can display accurate options. This avoids offering a plan the customer cannot actually use. Example prompt: Submit a cart total and customer country to the eligibility endpoint and return the available installment plans ### Refunds and Reconciliation A finance workflow issues refunds against completed Alma payments and reconciles settlement against balance transactions. Full and partial refunds are supported, and data exports provide the records a bookkeeping system needs. This keeps merchant ledgers aligned with Alma settlements. Example prompt: Issue a partial refund for a payment and export the day's balance transactions for reconciliation ### Payment Link Delivery A merchant sends a customer a link to complete an Alma installment payment out of band, by SMS or email. This supports phone orders and invoicing scenarios where the shopper is not at the storefront. The customer opens the link and completes the pay-later flow directly with Alma. Example prompt: Create a payment and send its link to the customer by SMS, then poll for completion ## Key endpoints | Method | Path | Description | | --- | --- | --- | | POST | `/payments` | Create a payment | | GET | `/payments/{id}` | Get a payment by id | | POST | `/payments/{id}/capture` | Capture a payment | | PUT | `/payments/{id}/cancel` | Cancel a payment | | POST | `/refunds` | Create a refund | | POST | `/eligibility/purchases` | Check installment eligibility | | POST | `/payments/{id}/sms` | Send a payment link by SMS | | POST | `/payments/{id}/email` | Send a payment link by email | ## Key resources - **Payments** — Create, capture, cancel, and refund installment payments - **Refunds** — Issue refunds against completed payments - **Eligibility** — Check which installment plans a purchase qualifies for - **Orders** — Attach order status and shipment updates to a payment - **Customers** — Register and list customers linked to payments - **Balance Transactions** — Retrieve settlement and balance transaction records - **Data Exports** — Generate and download exports of payment data ## Why Jentic - **Setup:** Wiring Alma by hand means handling its Alma-Auth API key against separate production and sandbox hosts and threading it through the payment, capture, refund, and eligibility calls yourself. Through Jentic you install once, import Alma from the API Directory, store the credential once, and your agent calls it. - **Permission scoping:** Alma puts the payment id in the URL path (`/payments/{id}`), so a rule can pin your agent to actions on a given payment and the operations you pick. You choose which operations it may call, so refunds and cancellations are not included unless you add them. - **Credential handling:** Your Alma API key is stored once, encrypted, by your own Jentic One instance and injected at execution time. It never enters the agent's prompt, logs, or context. - **Discovery method:** Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'create an installment payment' or 'check installment eligibility', and Jentic returns the matching Alma operation with its input schema so the agent calls the right endpoint without browsing the reference docs. ## Related APIs - **Stripe** — Stripe processes cards and wallets worldwide but does not offer Alma's European buy-now-pay-later installment plans. - **Mollie** — Mollie is a European payment gateway that also offers pay-later methods across multiple providers. - **PayPal Payments** — PayPal offers wallet checkout and its own pay-later product with a different merchant and settlement model than Alma. - **GoCardless** — GoCardless collects recurring bank debit payments rather than one-off installment financing. ## FAQ ### Why is there no official OpenAPI spec for Alma Payments API? Alma does not publish an OpenAPI specification. Jentic generates and maintains this spec so that AI agents and developers can call the Alma Payments API via structured tooling. It is validated against the live API and kept up to date. To run it on your own infrastructure, install Jentic One from its GitHub repo. ### What authentication does the Alma Payments API use? The Alma Payments API authenticates with an API key sent in the Authorization header, formatted as an Alma-Auth live or test key, per its OpenAPI spec. Through Jentic, that key is stored encrypted by your own Jentic One instance and injected at execution time, so it never enters the agent's prompt or logs. ### Can I check installment eligibility with the Alma Payments API? Yes. The eligibility endpoint takes a purchase amount and returns the installment plans a customer qualifies for, so a storefront can show accurate pay-later options before checkout. Alma supports several plan shapes, such as splitting a purchase into multiple installments or deferring payment. ### What are the rate limits for the Alma Payments API? The OpenAPI spec does not specify rate limits for the Alma Payments API. Check the Alma developer documentation at https://docs.almapay.com/reference for current limits, and back off when you receive a 429 response. ### How do I create an Alma payment through Jentic? Search Jentic for 'create an installment payment'. Jentic returns Alma's payment-creation operation with its input schema covering the amount, customer, and installment plan, so your agent can call it directly. You can then capture the payment once the order ships and issue refunds against it if needed. ### Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the Alma Payments API? Yes. You write a rule that allows only the operations the agent needs, such as creating payments and checking eligibility, so destructive operations like issuing refunds or cancelling a payment stay out of reach unless you add them. Because the payment id travels in the URL path, a rule can also bound the agent to actions on the payments it created. Every call the agent makes is logged. ### Is there an Alma Payments API MCP server? You do not need an MCP server to give your agent the Alma Payments API. Jentic connects it directly from the API Directory: import it, store your credential once, and your agent can create payments, issue refunds, and check eligibility. That also keeps your agent's context free of an extra server's tool definitions.