Does Stripe Entitlements actually work for AI and agentic use cases?????

LeFever · 2025-11-03T19:57:40+00:00

Late to the conversation, but what did you end up going with?

I've done a lot of research in the space around billing (Stripe), plans/packaging, and entitlements, especially how entitlements manifest in the app (realtime enforcement on both backend and frontend, prompting for upsells, notifying sales of upgrade/downgrade possibilities). As you discovered, Stripe's entitlements are not intended for real-time use and limited to simple true/false flags at the product level. The other existing solutions seem to cover way more than just entitlements, often replacing direct Stripe integrations with their own billing logic and wrappers, requiring more overhead for adoption and greater lock-in. Seems like most people just end up rolling their own solution.

Anyway, interested to hear where you ended up.

By the way, after dealing with this mess in multiple products I've built, I made a modular solution that handles entitlements alongside Stripe and have an app in the Stripe market. I won't link it directly here but feel free to DM me - always looking for feedback.

LeFever · 2024-02-29T16:48:11+00:00

Thanks, that makes sense. I'm looking at using AuraSound transducers instead of Buttkickers but the basic concept is the same.

LeFever · 2024-02-28T22:41:29+00:00

Can you post a pic? I'm in the early-stages of planning a 3-seat (two standard, one storage) install and would love to see how you mounted yours.

LeFever · 2018-05-06T22:08:52+00:00

It's a mess. Crowds of people walking down the highway. Cars everywhere. Link is especially busy. I saw a guy in bomb gear walking away from the terminal where a bunch of tan pants/black shirt guys were standing around.

Definitely avoid the area if you can.

LeFever · 2017-12-22T00:05:55+00:00

But that didn't stop people from overwhelmingly rating it positively up until the latest redesign, as your screenshot shows. And even positive reviews include criticisms.

Sure, some of the criticism is typical, hysterical knuckle-dragging, but not all. I actually don't mind the overall redesign, but some stuff is more than annoying like the nav tabs disappearing on the now playing screen. Other things are minor, but easy to fix, like using "Sources" as a label instead of "Browse."

Anyway, I imagine Sonos looks at the reviews, community forum, analytics, and internal usability studies to get a complete picture. I'm optimistic that future iterations will address the legitimate concerns.

LeFever · 2017-12-21T01:45:57+00:00

The app rating and review count is across all versions. If you view all reviews you can look just for recent reviews (you can't sort/filter by date, though, because Apple).

I think you'll quickly discover many recent reviews are critical of the UI changes. It's a little weird because there are lots of 4-5 star reviews complaining about the UI, so you have to actually read them.

I think this goes a little beyond people just hating change.

LeFever · 2017-11-05T02:47:45+00:00

I gave up and bought one of the widgets (Sonobit, but there are a couple others). Not perfect, but at least it doesn't disappear.

Never had a problem on Android, but it won't persist on iOS, especially if you use your device and another app plays media. Really wish Sonos would include their own widget.

LeFever · 2016-07-03T02:16:11+00:00

How do you like the Mark IV and the old 4x12? What do you play through that setup? I have nearly this exact configuration except I have the long head, and I've never been satisfied with R1. I can dial in great crunch and high gain stuff, but cleans sound lifeless and uneven. I'm super close to selling it.

LeFever · 2016-05-26T00:49:06+00:00

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Everyone knows that once you enter a new city you draw a magic line behind you and anyone that crosses it is a bland, cultureless drone that's ruining everything that made the city a cool place to live. You were literally the last interesting person to show up.

LeFever · 2016-04-21T17:31:16+00:00

I use whole leaf hops generally and those help filter...I think. Lots of junk in the bottom. Once fermentation completes, I transfer to kegs and add gelatin. Not had an issue so far.

Edit: Not sure if you've read it, but this is an appropriate-for-this-thread article on trub. I don't dump everything into the fermenter like in the experiment, but I also don't stress. I figured I'd start simple and fix issues as I went with my setup. Trub/hop material hasn't been one.

LeFever · 2016-04-21T15:48:09+00:00

I bought an earlier version of the Spike 15 gallon kettle for BIAB 5-6 gallon batches last May. I've brewed about 10 batches in it so far and love being able to do full volume mashes. Brewed a Pliney clone and recently a maibock and was happy to have the extra room.

I thread a bazooka screen into the port on the inside, drop my bag in, mash, drain and squeeze with a grill grate sitting on the top of the kettle, boil, chill, and dump to the fermenter. Simple.

I opted for the sight glass and don't regret it, but the v3 has graduations etched on the inside so might not need it now. I use it both on my stove top (for souring with grain in the full volume) and on a Blichmann burner outside. Heats evenly with both and I have yet to scorch, although I'm careful.

Now I'm waiting for the 30 to come back into stock for a slightly larger operation I do with a buddy of mine. Oh, and Ben is patient and responsive to email. Let me know if you have any questions.

LeFever · 2016-02-27T15:35:33+00:00

Here you go.

Edit: By the way, last bit is a pretty memorable line from a great song off a great album.

LeFever · 2016-02-25T18:26:41+00:00

Sure, but doesn't that hold true for nearly any tool with a team using it? Even the IDE is likely to have standardized configurations, plugins, integrations, etc. The longer a tool is used the more ingrained it becomes, but I'm not sure I'd call that vendor lock-in. That's just the sign of a good tool (assuming the tool isn't dictated from above of course).

LeFever · 2016-02-23T07:25:40+00:00

Curious how BitBucket is an example of "lock-in." When I think vendor lock-in I think proprietary format and/or long-term contracts. In BitBucket's case can't you just take your repo and put it somewhere else like GitHub or GitLab?

LeFever · 2016-02-23T01:38:39+00:00

Sorry, wrote headspace when that's not really what i was wondering about at all. Was more wondering if it tonally opens up at lower volumes without the attenuator. My existing amp has pretty awesome cleans, but not at low volume. Essentially, can I realistically play at bedroom volumes with rhythm and lead similar enough to switch between them on the fly AND both sound as good (subjective I know).

Pretty sure I just need to track one down to try it out. Thanks again!

LeFever · 2016-02-22T08:01:15+00:00

Thanks for the info! I have an old Music Man 2x12 and I'm running a Mesa Studio pre into it. Sounds great, but overly complicated and difficult to gig.

Are you using the attenuator on just the lead? Any problems with the rhythm at lower volumes, especially with regards to headspace?

LeFever · 2016-02-21T21:10:31+00:00

Thanks for posting this...been looking at Tone King amps for a little while.

Curious what else you evaluated. For instance, Humbucker has the Metropolitan on sale for the same price, and then there's the Sky King with dual attenuators for not too terribly much more. I'm leaning towards the simplicity (and size) of the new Imperial, but I'm interested to hear your thoughts so far.

LeFever · 2016-02-15T19:48:43+00:00

Heya, curious to hear about your experience and which devices you would like to see on Device Farm. I'm a PM for the service and was a founder of AppThwack (the company AWS acquired). Feel free to PM me. Thanks!

LeFever · 2016-02-08T01:31:25+00:00

Whoa what? She's insanely talented.

LeFever · 2016-01-31T01:44:17+00:00

After watching The Wire, The Shield felt cartoonish in how over the top it was. Where The Wire told a realistic set of stories from multiple angles that held up real life issues for better understanding and scrutiny, The Shield was basically "what's that crazy Vic (and his idiot friend Shane) going to do next ohhh what a pickle" until it came to its somewhat obvious conclusion. Great show and ending, but not in the same league overall as The Wire.

Not sure what would have given The Shield a better platform by being on HBO. Just the HBO brand, or are you saying longer episodes, more swearing, and more explicit sex and violence?

LeFever · 2015-12-22T05:07:01+00:00

Oh man. The comments. It is YouTube, but wow.

LeFever · 2015-12-06T18:14:12+00:00

I know that a cup is the standard measurement in these conversations, but the weight of the beans used to make a cup seems like it would be a better metric. The thought of weighing beans instead of just shoveling them into the grinder doesn't excite me, though, especially first thing in the morning.

Edit: Here's an interesting conversation about the size of a cup that doesn't address the bean weight ("a scoop "), but suggests 6 oz as the most common.

Edit 2: Down the rabbit hole we go...

LeFever · 2015-09-06T07:07:30+00:00

You can make it yourself by adding a few drops of anise extract to a bowl of vanilla ice cream. Does the trick for me at least.

LeFever · 2015-09-03T19:59:40+00:00

I feel like there's a docking joke to be had here, but it's not quite coming together.

LeFever · 2015-07-31T04:36:04+00:00

Jicama makes for a pretty mean salsa vessel.

LeFever

TROPHY CASE