• ERROR
  • ACTION
  • DATA
  • HUMAN

How to debug payment failures with your AI

Connect Checkout.com to your AI client once. After that, your agent handles the heavy lifting of digging through transaction logs to find the root cause of declines.

Ask AI about this page

Short answer

How can I use AI to find out why a payment failed?

Your AI uses Checkout.com tools to pull specific error codes and required payment actions for any given transaction. This lets you skip the manual dashboard hunting and get straight to the reason for the decline. You'll see the specific breakdown of the failure below.

Where every issue lands.

The outcomes of a debug session

Once your AI has access to the gateway data, it categorizes every failure into one of these four buckets.

ERROR

Hard declines

The AI identifies specific gateway error codes. You get a clear reason why the bank or processor rejected the charge.

ACTION

Required steps

The AI finds pending payment actions. It tells you if the user needs to complete 3D Secure or other authentication.

DATA

Transaction details

The AI pulls the raw metadata for the specific payment. You get the exact state of the transaction without leaving your chat.

HUMAN

Manual intervention

The AI flags issues it can't resolve, like fraud disputes or account-level blocks. You decide how to handle these cases.

The workflow

What your AI does when a failure occurs.

Instead of you clicking through the Checkout.com dashboard, your agent performs the data retrieval for you.

  1. Fetch transaction data

    Your agent pulls the specific details for a failed transaction ID to see the current status.

    get_payment_details

  2. Identify required actions

    The AI checks if the payment is stuck due to missing authentication or user steps.

    get_payment_actions

  3. Extract error codes

    The agent looks at the gateway response to find the exact reason for the decline.

    get_payment_details

  4. Summarize the failure

    The AI combines the error code and the required actions into a plain English explanation.

    get_payment_detailsget_payment_actions

Try it

Copy these to start.

Use these prompts to kick off a debugging session with your agent.

Starting points

These are just starting points. You'll need to provide a specific payment ID or transaction reference from your Checkout.com account.

Checkout.com Connector

You're all set. Choose your MCP client and follow the setup instructions.

Connector linkhttps://edge.vinkius.com/vk_preview_S3lDg6SN1hdkNWm91f9wcNYP96cnMkScbk1F3NW4/mcp

Claude Desktop

Follow the steps below to connect in seconds.

  1. 1In Claude Desktop, open Settings → Connectors.
  2. 2Click “Add custom connector” and paste the connector link above as the remote MCP server URL.
  3. 3Click Add and start a new chat — Checkout.com capabilities are ready to use.
Configuration · claude_desktop_config.jsonCopy
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "checkoutcom-1-mcp": {
      "url": "https://edge.vinkius.com/vk_preview_S3lDg6SN1hdkNWm91f9wcNYP96cnMkScbk1F3NW4/mcp"
    }
  }
}
Copy into chat04

  • Why did payment ID 'ch_12345' fail in Checkout.com?

  • Check the payment actions for transaction 'pay_98765' to see if it needs 3D Secure.

  • Summarize the error code and reason for the decline on this Checkout.com payment: 'ch_abcde'.

  • List all required actions for the recent failed transaction in my Checkout.com account.

  • Claude
  • ChatGPT
  • Cursor
  • VS Code
  • Windsurf
  • Claude Code
  • JetBrains
  • Cline

Start here

Connect Checkout.com once, then ask.

You only need to link your account once. Vinkius handles the connection securely, and you can immediately start asking your AI about your transactions.

Connect Checkout.com to your AI

FAQ

Common questions

  • 01

    Can the AI refund a customer?

    No. The AI can only read payment details and actions. You must process refunds manually through your payment gateway or your own internal tools.

  • 02

    Can the AI fix a declined card?

    No. The AI identifies why a card was declined, but it cannot change the card details or force a transaction to succeed.

  • 03

    Does the AI see my full credit card numbers?

    No. The AI only accesses the data provided by the Checkout.com API, which does not include full, unmasked card numbers.

  • 04

    Can I use this with Claude?

    Yes. You can use this with any MCP-compatible client like Claude, Cursor, or Windsurf once you've connected the Connector.

  • 05

    What happens if the AI can't find the error code?

    The AI will tell you it can't find the specific data. It won't guess or invent an error reason if the gateway hasn't provided one.

  • More questions about Checkout.com? See everything the Checkout.com Connector can do

Connect Checkout.com to Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT & more