A payments API engineers actually want to read.

curl -X POST https://api.scalepayments.com/v1/charges \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_live_..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "amount": 4999,
    "currency": "usd",
    "source": "tok_visa",
    "description": "Order #1042",
    "metadata": { "merchant_id": "m_8a2f" }
  }'

# 200 OK
{
  "id": "ch_3O2k9q...",
  "status": "succeeded",
  "amount": 4999,
  "settled_at": "2025-05-13T09:00:00Z"
}