Hellgate supports requestor-initiated EMVCo 3-D Secure authentication requests as standalone transactions.
All requests in this section must be linked to a prior customer-initiated authentication.
- Commerce API
Operating Models
API Organization
Customer Initiated
Merchant Initiated
Payment Modifications
Payment Data
Refund Data
Customer Initiated
Merchant Initiated (3RI)
Authentication Data
Credentials on File
Create Hellgate Tokens
Token Management
Compliance Service
Network Tokens
Merchants
Processor Backup
Reconciliation
Commerce API
Commerce API (2.0)
The Hellgate Commerce API provides a comprehensive payment orchestration platform designed to streamline and optimize payment processing for modern businesses. Built with flexibility and security at its core, our API enables you to process payments, manage authentications, and handle cardholder data across multiple payment processors without vendor lock-in.
Hellgate Commerce supports four distinct operating models to match your business needs:
- Primary Merchant - The standard operating model. Works great for single merchant setups.
- Platform - An operating model, which allows to process platform / marketplace payments.
- Ecosystem - An operationg model based on network tokens, which allows to facilitate transactions in e-commerce ecosystems.
- Managed Ecosystem - In this operating model, the management of the ecosystem is provided by Starfish as a service.
The API is organized into logical groups:
- Payments: Process and manage payment transactions
- Authentications: Handle 3-D Secure authentication flows
- Tokens: Create and manage payment tokens with network token support
- Configuration: Manage merchants and account settings
- Automation: Import existing tokens and generate reconciliation reports
Download OpenAPI description
Overview
Languages
Servers
Hellgate Sandbox
https://sandbox.hellgate.io/
Hellgate Production
https://api.hellgate.io/
Customer Initiated
These endpoints handle payment processing where the customer is actively present and authorizing the transaction.
Supports multiple payment scenarios:
- One-off payments: Single transactions for immediate purchase
- Initial recurring: First payment in a subscription series with customer consent
- Initial unscheduled: First payment for card-on-file scenarios
All customer-initiated payments optionally support 3-D Secure authentication for enhanced security.
Operations
Merchant Initiated
These transactions occur without direct customer interaction at the time of payment.
Key use cases:
- Recurring subscriptions: Automated billing for subscription services
- Unscheduled transactions: Variable charges based on usage or consumption
- Retry logic: Re-attempt failed payments with stored credentials
All merchant-initiated payments must reference a prior customer-initiated transaction for compliance.
Operations
Payment Modifications
Modify existing payment transactions after initial authorization. Essential for flexible payment management across all operating models.
Available modifications:
- Capture: Finalize pre-authorized payments (for two-step payment flows)
- Void: Cancel authorized but uncaptured transactions
- Refund: Return funds to customers for captured payments
Modifications can be applied across multiple processors, maintaining consistency in multi-processor setups.
Operations
Payment Data
Access comprehensive payment transaction data for reporting, reconciliation, and analysis. Critical for all operating models to maintain transaction visibility.
Features:
- Transaction history: Full audit trail of payment lifecycle
- Multi-processor visibility: Unified view across all connected processors
- Real-time status: Current state of payments with processor responses
- Filtering capabilities: Search and filter by multiple criteria
Operations
Refund Data
Access detailed refund transaction data for tracking and reconciliation. Essential for customer service and financial reporting across all operating models.
Provides:
- Refund status tracking: Monitor refund processing across processors
- Transaction linking: Connect refunds to original payments
- Partial refund support: Track multiple refunds against single payments
- Processor responses: Detailed feedback from payment processors
Operations
Customer Initiated
Hellgate allows to process EMVCo 3-D Secure authentication requests as standalone request.
For example, these endpoints can be used to process payment authentication centrally and process the subsequent authorization requests conditionally on different payment processors.
The secion of customer initiated authentications consists of three use-cases:
| Use-Case | Description |
|---|---|
| One Off | A standard situation in which a single payment amount shall undergo 3-D Secure authentication. |
| Initial Recurring | An authentication of the first payment in the sequence of recurring payments. |
| Initial Installment | An authentication of the first payment in the sequence of installment payments. |
Operations
Credentials on File
Manage stored payment credentials for repeat customers across all operating models. Essential for subscription services, marketplaces, and ecosystems requiring seamless repeat transactions.
Capabilities:
- Credential storage: Securely store customer payment methods for future use
- Cross-processor portability: Use stored credentials with any connected processor
- Compliance management: Automatic handling of card scheme mandates
- Customer control: Enable customers to view and manage their stored payment methods
Operations
Create Hellgate Tokens
Hellgate Tokens are powerful instrument to manage card holder data in a PCI/DSS compliant way.
Compliance as a Service
Achieve PCI / DSS compliance in almost no time using our certified managed compliance service.
No Acquirer Lock-In
Transparently use the cardholder data across all connected processors to implement a non lock-in acquiring setup.
Network Tokens
For every card which is tokenized on Hellgate, network-tokens can be automatically provisioned. This allows for more secure transactions, better conversion, and ultimately lower processing cost.
Operations
Token Management
All cards stored with Hellgate can be managed via the endpoints in this section.
The CVC2 security code is only kept in an ephemeral cache for a few minutes. The API allows to manage this resource with these endpoints:
- check if the CVC2 is still availble
- request a new session to renew the CVC2 with our SDK
- consume the token after a successful authorization on an external processor
Operations
Compliance Service
Safely handle sensitive cardholder data while maintaining PCI DSS compliance across all operating models. Our compliance service acts as a secure proxy between your systems and payment processors.
Key features:
- PCI DSS Level 1 certified: Reduce your compliance scope significantly
- Data forwarding: Securely transmit cardholder data to processors without touching your systems
- Format preservation: Maintain data formats required by different processors
Operations
Network Tokens
Hellgate supports Network Tokens with major card schemes.
The lifecycle of network tokens is automatically managed. When activated a network token is automatically provisioned and maintained through its life-cycle.
The use of Network Tokens requires prior activation by your account manager.
Operations
Merchants
Configure and manage merchant accounts based on your chosen operating model. The merchant management capabilities adapt to support all four Hellgate Commerce operating models.
The default model for single businesses. Your account operates as a standalone merchant processing its own transactions.
- Single merchant configuration locked to your primary account
- Cannot add sub-merchants (
POST /merchantsdisabled) - Cannot delete the primary merchant (
DELETE /merchants/{id}disabled) - Full access to all payment features for your own transactions
Operations
Processor Backup
In case your precious payment-method data is currently locked into an acquirer processor, Hellgate allows you to migrate the tokens automatically. Currently we support stripe.com, but more processors are on our list. Please ask you account manager for more information.
Detailed documentation on how to migrate your stripe payment methods can be found on the Hellgate Developer Documentation.
Operations