Getting Started with paddle

Overview

The paddleR package provides a complete R interface to the Paddle Billing API, enabling you to manage customers, subscriptions, transactions, invoices, and more directly from R.

Whether you’re building internal dashboards, automated billing workflows, or a SaaS application backend, paddle makes it easy to interact with Paddle’s RESTful endpoints in a consistent and validated way.

Setting the API Mode

PaddleR supports two environments:

Live (https://api.paddle.com) for production
Sandbox (https://sandbox-api.paddle.com) for safe testing

By default, the package uses live mode. You can switch modes using:

# Set sandbox mode for testing
set_paddle_mode("sandbox")

# Revert back to live mode
set_paddle_mode("live")

You can check the current mode and base URL with:

get_paddle_mode()  # Returns "live" or "sandbox"
get_paddle_url()   # Returns full API base URL

Setting Your API Key

To authenticate with the Paddle API, you must set your API key(s) as environment variables. You have two options:

Option 1: Single Key (Live OR Sandbox)

Sys.setenv(PADDLE_KEY = "your-live-or-sandbox-key")

Option 2: Recommended – Separate Keys for Live and Sandbox

Sys.setenv(PADDLE_KEY_LIVE = "your-live-key")
Sys.setenv(PADDLE_KEY_SANDBOX = "your-sandbox-key")

This allows the package to automatically choose the correct key based on the mode selected with set_paddle_mode(). Please make sure your API has all the necessary permissions for the operations you want to perform.

Example: Initialize and Fetch Data

# Set mode to sandbox for testing
set_paddle_mode("sandbox")

# List products, subscriptions, or customers
products <- paddle_list_products()
subscriptions <- paddle_list_subscriptions()

Package Initialization Logic

Internally, the package uses a hidden environment to store the current mode and URL:

.paddle_env <- new.env(parent = emptyenv())
.paddle_env$mode     <- "live"
.paddle_env$base_url <- "https://api.paddle.com"

These are updated dynamically using the exported helpers:

set_paddle_mode(“sandbox”)
get_paddle_mode()
get_paddle_url()

Next Steps

Now that you have paddleR set up, you can start building your Paddle integration:

Use paddle_list_*() functions to explore available resources like products, subscriptions, customers, etc.
Create and manage customers with paddle_create_customer(), paddle_update_customer(), etc.
Manage subscriptions using paddle_create_subscription(), paddle_update_subscription(), etc.
Handle transactions with paddle_list_transactions(), paddle_get_transaction(), etc.
Work with invoices using paddle_list_invoices(), paddle_get_invoice(), etc.
Manage discounts with paddle_list_discounts(), paddle_create_discount(), etc.
Use paddle_list_prices() to explore available prices for products
Create and manage products with paddle_create_product(), paddle_update_product(), etc.