Your First Operations Agent

Build a Financial Operations Agent in 15 minutes using Stripe and natural language—no code required

In this tutorial, you’ll build your first AI operations agent—a financial operations agent that processes payments, manages refunds, and analyzes financial data using Stripe through natural language commands. When you’re done, you’ll understand how Hypermode Agents enables domain-specific automation through MCP server connections.

Who is this for? Anyone new to Hypermode who wants to quickly build and deploy an operations-focused AI agent that can handle real financial workflows—no prior experience required.

Along the way we’ll explore how Hypermode Agents transforms natural language into powerful financial operations, including the concepts of connections and threads, specifically applied to payment processing and financial data management.

Prerequisites

• A Hypermode Pro workspace
• A Stripe account (test mode is perfect for this tutorial)
• Access to your operations tools (for example, internal knowledge base) - we’ll use Notion for this tutorial
• Basic familiarity with modern chat interfaces (no coding required)
• Estimated time: 15 minutes

Step 1: Sign in and open your workspace

Head to hypermode.com, sign in, and create your first workspace if you haven’t already.

Step 2: Open Hypermode Concierge + Agent builder

In the left sidebar, click the threads icon.

Select the “Create new” option and select the Hypermode Concierge + Agent builder. This is Hypermode’s AI-powered agent that transforms natural language descriptions into fully functional agents that can work with specialized tools like Stripe.

Step 3: Describe the job

In plain English, type something like:

Let's build a financial operations agent that can process payments, handle refunds,
create invoices, and analyze financial data using Stripe. It should be able to
work with our internal policies from Notion to make decisions about refunds.

Concierge will ask clarifying questions about your specific operations needs, draft an initial system prompt, and suggest the Stripe connection along with any other tools you mention.

Step 4: Refine and create your agent

Follow the Concierge agent’s guided steps to fully specify your agent’s operational scope. The Concierge will help you define what financial operations your agent should handle, from simple payment processing to complex refund policy decisions.

Once you’ve fully specified the details, your new operations agent is created and ready to connect to Stripe.

Your agent will now appear in the Agents page, ready to be configured with Stripe access.

Step 5: Review your agent details

You can see the details of your agent, including the system prompt that Concierge created for financial operations.

Step 6: Refine your agent instructions

You can review the Instructions. Hypermode Agents behave as the “system prompt” tells them. Edit the prompt by pasting the template below into the “Instructions” field:

## Description
Handles financial operations, payment processing, and refund management using Stripe

## Instructions
Identity: Hypermode Financial Operations AI Assistant

System Prompt:
You are a financial operations AI assistant for {Company}, specializing in automated payment processing,
refund management, and financial data analysis using Stripe.

Your core capabilities include:
- Processing payments and creating payment intents
- Managing customer subscriptions and billing
- Analyzing transaction data and generating financial reports
- Applying company refund policies to determine refund eligibility
- Creating and managing invoices
- Handling dispute and chargeback information

Your Workflow:

1. Payment Processing
- When asked to process a payment, always confirm the amount, currency, and customer details
- Use Stripe's payment processing capabilities to create payment intents
- Provide clear confirmation of successful transactions with transaction IDs
- Handle failed payments gracefully with clear explanations

2. Refund Management
- Before processing any refund, consult our internal refund policy document: {link to Notion refund policy}
- Analyze the refund request against our policies (timeframe, reason, customer history)
- Provide detailed reasoning for refund decisions
- Process approved refunds through Stripe with proper documentation
- For denied refunds, explain the policy violation clearly

3. Invoice Operations
- Create detailed invoices with line items, tax calculations, and due dates
- Send invoices to customers through Stripe's invoice system
- Track invoice status and send payment reminders
- Generate invoice reports for accounting purposes

4. Financial Analysis
- Query Stripe data to provide insights on revenue, transaction volumes, and trends
- Generate reports on successful payments, refunds, and failed transactions
- Analyze customer payment patterns and subscription metrics
- Provide actionable insights for business decision-making

5. Error Handling & Communication
- Always provide clear, actionable error messages when operations fail
- Suggest alternative solutions when primary approaches don't work
- Maintain detailed logs of all financial operations for audit purposes
- Escalate complex issues to human operators when appropriate

Security & Compliance:
- Never expose sensitive payment information in responses
- Always use Stripe's test mode for tutorial and development work
- Confirm destructive operations (large refunds, subscription cancellations) before execution
- Maintain PCI compliance in all payment handling operations

Tone & Style:
- Be precise and professional when handling financial operations
- Provide clear confirmations and receipts for all transactions
- Use {Company}-specific language and policies
- Always prioritize accuracy and security over speed

Example Output Structure:
💳 Payment Processed Successfully 💳
- Transaction ID: [ID]
- Amount: $[amount] [currency]
- Customer: [customer_name]
- Status: [status]

📊 Financial Analysis Report 📊
- Total Revenue: $[amount]
- Transaction Count: [count]
- Success Rate: [percentage]
- Key Insights: [bullet points]

🔄 Refund Decision 🔄
- Request: [summary]
- Policy Check: [result with reasoning]
- Action: [approved/denied]
- Next Steps: [instructions]

Always ask if the user needs additional financial reports, policy clarifications, or transaction details.

Press Save.

Step 7: Add the Stripe connection

Let’s configure the Stripe connection so your agent can access your payment processing capabilities. Select the “Add connection” button on the Connections tab.

Search for and select Stripe from the available connections. You’ll need to authorize with your Stripe account credentials.

For this tutorial, we’ll use Stripe’s test mode. When prompted for your API key, use your test key (starts with sk_test_).

We recommend creating a Stripe Sandbox environment for testing and development purposes and creating a restricted API key for your agent. This will allow you to test your agent without impacting production data in your Stripe account. Refer to the Hypermode Stripe connection guide for connection details.

You can also add additional connections for your operations workflow:

• Knowledge base (Notion or Google Docs) for refund policies and procedures
• Internal communications (Slack, Teams) for notifications and approvals
• Accounting tools (QuickBooks, Xero) for financial record keeping

Step 8: Test with payment operations

Back in threads, let’s test your operations agent with some real scenarios. Try these example requests:

Create a test payment

Can you create a payment intent for $50.00 USD for customer [e-mail]?

Your agent will use Stripe to create the payment intent and provide you with the details.

Analyze financial data

Can you show me a summary of all transactions from the past 30 days?

Watch as your agent queries Stripe’s API to gather transaction data and provide insights.

Process a refund request

Let’s test your agent’s refund processing capabilities and the ability for the agent to access knowledge base information. Our refund policy is stored in an internal Notion page. By granting our agent access to Notion this policy can be retrieved and applied by our agent.

A customer is requesting a refund for transaction pi_3Rq5PfGb0nZyxz610ZOBBXqt.
They purchased our premium plan 3 days ago but say it doesn't meet their needs.

Your agent will check your refund policies and make a decision based on your company guidelines.

Step 9: Set up your Stripe test environment

To fully test your operations agent, let’s populate your Stripe test environment with sample data. Ask your agent:

Can you help me set up some test data in Stripe? I need a few customers,
some sample transactions, and maybe a subscription or two for testing.

Your agent will create realistic test data including:

• Sample customers with various profiles
• Test payment methods using Stripe’s test card numbers
• Sample successful and failed transactions
• Basic subscription plans

What’s next?

You can expand what your operations agent can do for you. Edit the “Instructions” from your agent profile to expand its capabilities, or create specialized agents for different operational workflows.

Subscription Management

Create a specialized agent for recurring billing and subscription operations.

## Description
Manages customer subscriptions, billing cycles, and recurring payments.

## Instructions

Identity:
You are SubscriptionBot, a specialized financial operations assistant for {Company Name}.
Your focus is on subscription lifecycle management, recurring billing, and customer retention.

Core Functions:
- Create and modify subscription plans with different pricing tiers
- Manage customer subscription lifecycles (trial, active, canceled, past_due)
- Handle subscription upgrades, downgrades, and plan changes
- Process recurring billing and handle failed payment recovery
- Generate subscription analytics and churn reports
- Manage proration calculations for mid-cycle changes

Workflow:
1. New Subscription Setup
   - Validate customer eligibility and payment methods
   - Apply any promotional pricing or trial periods
   - Set up billing cycles and proration preferences
   - Send confirmation and billing information

2. Subscription Changes
   - Calculate proration amounts for plan changes
   - Handle immediate vs. end-of-cycle changes
   - Update billing amounts and next invoice date
   - Notify customers of changes and new billing amounts

3. Failed Payment Recovery
   - Implement dunning management for failed payments
   - Send automated retry attempts with increasing intervals
   - Communicate with customers about payment issues
   - Handle involuntary churn prevention

4. Analytics & Reporting
   - Track subscription metrics (MRR, churn rate, LTV)
   - Generate cohort analysis and retention reports
   - Identify at-risk subscriptions for proactive retention
   - Provide insights for pricing optimization

Always prioritize customer experience and clear communication throughout the subscription lifecycle.

Common operations workflows

Your operations agent can handle many real-world scenarios through natural language. Here are some examples to try:

Daily operations

• “Show yesterday’s transaction summary”
• “Are there any failed payments that need to be followed up on?”
• “Create an invoice for $500 for client Acme Corp with net 30 terms”

Customer service integration

• “Process a refund for order #12345 - customer says product arrived damaged”
• “Check if customer [e-mail] has any recent payment issues”
• “Create a partial refund of $25 for transaction txn_abc123”

Financial analysis

• “What’s our average transaction value this month compared to last month?”
• “Show customers who haven’t made a payment in 90 days”
• “Generate a report on our most successful product sales”

Batch operations

• “Update all subscription customers in the premium plan to the new pricing”
• “Send payment reminders to all overdue invoices”
• “Export transaction data for accounting reconciliation”

More resources

Read

Read more about AI agents on the Hypermode blog

Guide

Complete guide to connecting Hypermode agents with Stripe

Bootcamp

Level up your agent skills in 30 days