Both live and test Stripe keys are shipped to the browser

Why it matters

Your client bundle contains both a live (`pk_live_`) and a test (`pk_test_`) Stripe publishable key. Which one is used depends on a runtime condition that is not visible from outside — an environment variable, a hostname check, a feature flag — so some visitors may be charged while others silently are not, and the behaviour can differ between your testing and real traffic. Ship exactly one publishable key per deployment, chosen at build time.

How ShipReady detects it

Payment configuration that stops money arriving. The failure this pillar exists for is mundane and catastrophic: a live site wired to a payment provider's TEST environment. Checkout appears to work, the form submits, a success page renders — and no money ever moves. It survives launch because the developer's own testing passes perfectly, and it is usually found when a founder wonders why a week of signups produced no revenue. Deliberately narrow. Every rule here keys off a marker that is definitionally a test credential — Stripe's `pk_test_` prefix, Paddle's sandbox environment call, Polar's sandbox API host. None of them require interpretation, none of them can appear in a correctly configured production deployment, and none of them involve touching the payment provider or attempting a transaction. NOT checked, deliberately: whether a checkout page exists or is reachable. Payment routes have no convention — /checkout, /pricing, /billing, /upgrade, /subscribe are all common and most sites have none of them. Probing a list of guesses and reporting the 404s would produce noise on nearly every scan, which is the opposite of what this pillar is for.

Detection is deterministic. ShipReady reports this only when it observes the condition directly, and prefers to miss a real problem over inventing one. Rule version 1.0.0.

How to fix it

This is the prompt ShipReady puts in your report — written to be pasted straight into Cursor, Claude Code, or whichever assistant built the app.

Your client bundle ships both a live and a test Stripe publishable key, so which one runs depends on a runtime condition rather than on which environment you deployed. Remove the conditional and select the key at build time from a single environment variable — one publishable key per deployment. Search your codebase for pk_live_ and pk_test_ to find any hardcoded fallback, since a literal key left in the source is the usual cause. Confirm the fix by loading your production site and checking the network requests to Stripe carry only the live key.

Frequently asked questions

What does "Both live and test Stripe keys are shipped to the browser" mean?

Your client bundle contains both a live (`pk_live_`) and a test (`pk_test_`) Stripe publishable key.

How serious is it?

ShipReady rates this medium. Fix soon. Meaningfully weakens a defence or degrades how the site works.

How do I fix it?

Paste the fix prompt on this page into Cursor, Claude Code or your AI editor. It is the same prompt ShipReady puts in your report.

Can I check my own site?

Yes — ShipReady scans up to ten pages of any public site for free and reports this alongside every other check.

Related checks

• Payment test mode keyhigh