How sponsors are used
Offer SDK was built for the PayPal AI Hackathon. This page lists each sponsor tool it uses, what that tool does in the product, and what you configure to turn it on.
Offer SDK is an entry in the PayPal AI Hackathon. It uses PayPal for every payment, Render to host the stack and run pauses, Zapier to carry webhooks to other apps, and Postman for a request collection. The AI side of the product is covered in AI features.
At a glance
| Tool | What it does in Offer SDK | What you configure | Page |
|---|---|---|---|
| PayPal | Takes every payment: subscriptions and one-time orders at checkout, plan changes, save-offer discounts, cancellations and pauses. Its webhooks keep accounts in sync with billing. | A PayPal REST app per Offer app (client ID and secret, sandbox or live), entered in the dashboard. On Render, PayPal webhooks register themselves. | PayPal |
| Render | Hosts the API, dashboard, Workflows service and Postgres from one Blueprint, with private networking between them. Runs subscription pauses as Workflow tasks with retries. | Deploy render.yaml. Add RENDER_API_KEY on the API to run pauses as Workflow tasks. | Render |
| Zapier | Carries Offer webhook events to other apps through a Zap, with no code on your side. | A Catch Hook URL from a Zap, pasted into Developers → Webhooks → Connect Zapier. | Zapier |
| Postman | A collection with a request for every API route, grouped by resource, with a Quickstart folder that sets up an app and saves its keys as it runs. | Import the collection. For a deployed API, also import the environment and set baseUrl and adminKey. | Postman |
PayPal
PayPal is the only payment provider. Each Offer app connects its own PayPal REST app, so buyers pay you directly and the credentials never leave your API. When a buyer checks out, the API prices the selection from the stored offer and creates a PayPal subscription for monthly and yearly prices, or a PayPal order for one-time prices. Later changes to a running subscription (a new plan, a save-offer discount, a pause, a cancellation) are made through PayPal's subscription API, and PayPal's webhooks bring renewals and cancellations back to the account. PayPal covers the setup, every PayPal call, and how to test in sandbox.
Render
The repo ships a Render Blueprint (render.yaml) that creates the whole stack: the API as a Docker web service, the dashboard as a Node web service, a Workflows service, and a Postgres database that only accepts internal connections. The dashboard reaches the API over Render's private network. When a customer accepts a pause in a cancel flow, the API starts a Render Workflow task that suspends billing in PayPal, with its own retries and run log. Render explains the services and the pause tasks, and Deploy on Render walks through a deploy.
Zapier
Offer SDK sends signed webhooks for account, usage, plan, subscription and cancel-flow events. The dashboard has a Zapier connect dialog that turns a Zap's Catch Hook URL into a webhook endpoint and sends a sample event so Zapier can map its fields. It's an ordinary endpoint underneath, with the same signature, retries and delivery log. Zapier has the recipes and the setup steps.
Postman
The repo ships a Postman collection that covers every route the API serves. Requests send the right key for their route: the secret key by default, the publishable key for browser routes, an account token for cancel sessions and the admin key for admin routes. Run the Quickstart folder and it creates an app, saves its keys and ids into collection variables, and builds a small catalog, so every other request works without copying values by hand. A test in the API fails when a route has no request, so the collection can't fall behind the code. Postman has the download and the steps.