visa-best-practices

name	visa-best-practices
description	Best practices and integration guide for Visa developer APIs and payment protocols — covers platform setup, authentication, encryption, and product-specific workflows. Trigger keywords: VDP, Visa Developer Platform, VIC, Visa Intelligent Commerce, MPP, Machine Payments Protocol, X-Pay Token, Two-Way SSL, Mutual TLS, MLE, JWE, MCP integration, HTTP 402, network tokens, Visa Developer, Visa MLE.

Visa Developer Platform Integration Guide

Routing — What Are You Working On?

If the user is asking about...	Read this reference
Authentication (X-Pay Token, Two-Way SSL, Mutual TLS)	references/vdp-integration.md
Message Level Encryption (MLE/JWE)	references/vdp-integration.md
Environment URLs (Sandbox, Cert, Production)	references/vdp-integration.md
Credential management & certificate rotation	references/vdp-integration.md
Code examples & starter kit (llms.txt)	references/vdp-integration.md
VIC workflows (card enrollment, purchase instructions)	references/visa-intelligent-commerce.md
VIC payment credentials & agent commerce	references/visa-intelligent-commerce.md
MPP card charge (HTTP 402, network tokens)	references/machine-payments-protocol.md
MPP Client/Server Enablers	references/machine-payments-protocol.md

Quick Decision: Which Auth Method?

• X-Pay Token — Use for most integrations. Simpler setup, HMAC-based.
• Two-Way SSL (Mutual TLS) — Use when required by specific APIs or for higher-security environments.

Both are documented in references/vdp-integration.md.

Quick Decision: MCP vs Direct API?

• MCP-based — Building an AI agent or LLM-powered application? Use MCP (StreamableHTTP transport).
• Direct REST API — Traditional backend service? Use direct API calls with X-Pay auth + MLE.

Official Documentation Entry Points

Resource	URL
Developer Center	https://developer.visa.com
VIC Capabilities	https://developer.visa.com/capabilities/visa-intelligent-commerce

For all documentation links (auth guides, MLE guide, quick start), see references/vdp-integration.md.

Product-Specific Guides

Visa Intelligent Commerce (VIC)

For VIC integration (card enrollment, purchase instructions, payment credentials, agent commerce workflows), see:

references/visa-intelligent-commerce.md

Machine Payments Protocol (MPP)

For MPP card charge integration (HTTP 402 payment challenges, encrypted network token credentials, Client Enabler interface, receipts), see:

references/machine-payments-protocol.md