# How Agentic Commerce Suite works

Learn what Stripe manages at each stage of selling through agents and how you can take on any stage yourself.

With Agentic Commerce Suite, you share your catalog with Stripe, and Stripe manages checkout and payments when an agent sells your products. Selling through agents has four stages. For each stage, Stripe does the work by default, and you can take it on yourself when you need more control.

The following diagram shows the default flow when a customer buys your product through an agent.

A seller uploads a catalog feed to Stripe, and Stripe shares it with agents. When a customer buys through an agent, Stripe manages the checkout and processes the payment, then sends the seller an event to fulfill the order. (See full diagram at https://docs.stripe.com/agentic-commerce/sellers/use-cases/retail/how-it-works)

```text
[Seller] -- Upload catalog feed --> [Stripe]
[Stripe] -- Share products, prices, and availability --> [Agent]
[Customer] -- Ask to buy a product --> [Agent]
[Agent] -- Create checkout --> [Stripe]
[Stripe] -- Return totals and options --> [Agent]
[Customer] -- Confirm purchase --> [Agent]
[Agent] -- Complete checkout with payment credential --> [Stripe]
[Stripe] -- Process payment --> [Stripe]
[Stripe] -- Send checkout.session.completed event --> [Seller]
[Seller] -- Fulfill order --> [Seller]
[Stripe] -- Confirm order --> [Agent]
```

The following table shows what Stripe does by default at each stage and how you can take it on yourself.

| Stage | What Stripe does by default | What you can do |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [Catalog](https://docs.stripe.com/agentic-commerce/sellers/use-cases/retail/catalog.md) | Shares your catalog feed with agents, and checks inventory and prices against it. | Provide real-time price and availability with a hook, and offer promotions. |
| [Checkout](https://docs.stripe.com/agentic-commerce/sellers/use-cases/retail/checkout/hooks.md) | Manages the checkout lifecycle with the agent, including taxes and shipping options from your catalog. | Approve orders, calculate taxes and shipping dynamically, or [handle every checkout event](https://docs.stripe.com/agentic-commerce/sellers/use-cases/retail/checkout/hooks.md#checkout-events) with [hooks](https://docs.stripe.com/agentic-commerce/sellers/use-cases/retail/checkout/hooks.md). |
| Payments | Receives the [Shared Payment Token](https://docs.stripe.com/agentic-commerce/concepts/shared-payment-tokens.md) (SPT) from the agent and processes the payment. | [Capture payments later](https://docs.stripe.com/agentic-commerce/sellers/use-cases/retail/checkout/orders.md#manual-capture), [process them with your own processor](https://docs.stripe.com/agentic-commerce/sellers/use-cases/retail/checkout/hooks.md#checkout-confirm), or [use Stripe payments in your own checkout](https://docs.stripe.com/agentic-commerce/sellers/use-cases/retail/ucp.md). |
| [Orders](https://docs.stripe.com/agentic-commerce/sellers/use-cases/retail/checkout/orders.md) | Sends a `checkout.session.completed` event when an agent completes an order. | Fulfill orders, and handle refunds and disputes. |

You can use the stages independently. For example, you can use only the catalog and run checkout and payments outside Stripe, or run your own [Universal Commerce Protocol](https://docs.stripe.com/agentic-commerce/protocols/ucp.md) (UCP) checkout and [use only the Stripe Payments handler](https://docs.stripe.com/agentic-commerce/sellers/use-cases/retail/ucp.md).

To set up Agentic Commerce Suite, see [Sell through agents with Agentic Commerce Suite](https://docs.stripe.com/agentic-commerce/sellers/use-cases/retail/checkout.md).