Resources - Flowglad Docs

Resources are claimable capacity entitlements included in subscriptions. They represent countable units that customers can reserve and release—like team seats, API keys, concurrent connections, or projects. Unlike usage-based billing which tracks consumption, resources track allocation: who has reserved what.

The Resource Data Model

Resources let you implement allocation-based pricing models. Here’s how the key components work together:

Resources: Define the types of capacity you offer. Each resource has a slug (like seats or api_keys) and belongs to a pricing model. Think of it as describing what can be allocated.
Subscription Item Features: When a customer subscribes to a product, their subscription includes features that grant resource capacity. For example, a “Team Plan” might include 10 seats. This defines how much of each resource a customer can claim.
Resource Claims: Individual allocations from a customer’s capacity pool. When a user joins a team and takes a seat, that’s a claim. Claims can be anonymous (just a count) or named (with an identifier like a user ID).

Resources are different from Usage: usage tracks consumption that gets billed (like tokens), while resources track allocations (like seats) that can be reserved and released.

Key Concepts

Capacity

Each subscription has a capacity limit for resources, determined by the product features. If a customer subscribes to a plan with “10 seats included,” their seat capacity is 10. Capacity can vary by pricing tier—a Pro plan might offer 25 seats while an Enterprise plan offers unlimited.

Resource Claims

A claim represents an allocation from the capacity pool. When you claim a resource, you’re reserving it for use. Claims track:

When it was claimed (claimedAt)
Who it’s for (externalId, optional)
Custom data (metadata, optional)
Release status (releasedAt, releaseReason)

Named vs Anonymous Claims

Resources support two claiming modes: Named Claims use an identifier (externalId) to track exactly what each allocation is for:

Idempotent—claiming the same ID twice returns the existing claim
Easy to look up and release by identifier
Ideal for tracking: “user_john has seat #3”

Anonymous Claims use a simple quantity count:

No identifier attached
Released in FIFO order (oldest first)
Ideal for: “we need 3 more seats, don’t care which”

Common Use Cases

Use Case	Resource Slug	Claim Mode
Team seats	`seats`	Named (track which users)
API keys	`api_keys`	Named (track each key)
Project limits	`projects`	Named (track each project)
Concurrent connections	`connections`	Anonymous (just count)
Workspace limits	`workspaces`	Named (track each workspace)

Setting Up Resources

Step 1: Create a Resource in Your Pricing Model

Navigate to the Pricing Models page in your dashboard
Select the pricing model you want to add the resource to
Click “Create Resource”
Provide a descriptive name (e.g., “Team Seats”) and slug (e.g., seats)
Save the resource

Step 2: Add Resource Capacity to a Product

When creating or editing a product’s features:

Add a new feature of type Resource
Select the resource you created
Set the capacity (e.g., 10 seats)
Save the product

When customers subscribe to this product, they’ll receive the specified capacity for that resource.

Working with Resources in Your App

Checking Available Capacity

Before allowing users to claim resources, check what’s available:

lib/check-capacity.ts

import { flowglad } from './flowglad'

export async function checkSeatAvailability(customerExternalId: string) {
  const server = flowglad(customerExternalId)
  const { usage } = await server.getResourceUsage({ resourceSlug: 'seats' })

  return {
    total: usage.capacity,
    claimed: usage.claimed,
    available: usage.available,
    canAddMember: usage.available > 0
  }
}

Claiming Resources

Use named claims when you need to track what each allocation is for:

lib/team-management.ts

import { flowglad } from './flowglad'

export async function addTeamMember(params: {
  customerExternalId: string
  memberId: string
  memberEmail: string
}) {
  const server = flowglad(params.customerExternalId)

  // Named claim with metadata
  const result = await server.claimResource({
    resourceSlug: 'seats',
    externalId: params.memberId,
    metadata: {
      email: params.memberEmail,
      addedAt: Date.now()
    }
  })

  return {
    claim: result.claims[0],
    remainingSeats: result.usage.available
  }
}

Use anonymous claims when you just need a count:

lib/connection-pool.ts

import { flowglad } from './flowglad'

export async function reserveConnections(params: {
  customerExternalId: string
  quantity: number
}) {
  const server = flowglad(params.customerExternalId)

  const result = await server.claimResource({
    resourceSlug: 'connections',
    quantity: params.quantity
  })

  return result.claims
}

Releasing Resources

Release named claims by their identifier:

lib/team-management.ts

export async function removeTeamMember(params: {
  customerExternalId: string
  memberId: string
}) {
  const server = flowglad(params.customerExternalId)

  const result = await server.releaseResource({
    resourceSlug: 'seats',
    externalId: params.memberId
  })

  return {
    released: result.releasedClaims,
    availableSeats: result.usage.available
  }
}

Release anonymous claims by quantity (FIFO order):

lib/connection-pool.ts

export async function releaseConnections(params: {
  customerExternalId: string
  quantity: number
}) {
  const server = flowglad(params.customerExternalId)

  return server.releaseResource({
    resourceSlug: 'connections',
    quantity: params.quantity
  })
}

Listing Active Claims

View all active claims for a resource:

lib/team-management.ts

export async function getTeamMembers(params: { customerExternalId: string }) {
  const server = flowglad(params.customerExternalId)

  const { claims } = await server.listResourceClaims({
    resourceSlug: 'seats'
  })

  return claims.map(claim => ({
    id: claim.id,
    memberId: claim.externalId,
    email: claim.metadata?.email,
    joinedAt: claim.claimedAt
  }))
}

API Response Shapes

Resource Usage

interface ResourceUsage {
  resourceSlug: string    // e.g., "seats"
  resourceId: string      // UUID
  capacity: number        // Total available (e.g., 10)
  claimed: number         // Currently in use (e.g., 3)
  available: number       // Remaining (e.g., 7)
}

Resource Claim

interface ResourceClaim {
  id: string                                      // Claim ID
  resourceId: string                              // Resource UUID
  subscriptionId: string                          // Subscription UUID
  externalId: string | null                       // Your identifier (null for anonymous)
  claimedAt: number                               // Unix timestamp (ms)
  releasedAt: number | null                       // null = active
  releaseReason: string | null                    // Why it was released
  expiredAt: number | null                        // Auto-expires at this time (for interim claims)
  metadata: Record<string, string | number | boolean> | null
  createdAt: number                               // Unix timestamp (ms)
  updatedAt: number                               // Unix timestamp (ms)
  livemode: boolean                               // true = production mode
  organizationId: string                          // Owning organization
  pricingModelId: string                          // Associated pricing model
}

Important Behaviors

Idempotent Named Claims

Claiming with the same externalId twice returns the existing claim without creating a duplicate. This makes the API safe for retries:

// First call creates the claim
await server.claimResource({ resourceSlug: 'seats', externalId: 'user_123' })

// Second call with same externalId returns the existing claim
await server.claimResource({ resourceSlug: 'seats', externalId: 'user_123' })
// No duplicate created!

Capacity Enforcement

Claims fail if they would exceed capacity. Always check availability before attempting to claim, or handle the error gracefully:

const { usage } = await server.getResourceUsage({ resourceSlug: 'seats' })

if (usage.available < 1) {
  throw new Error('No seats available. Please upgrade your plan.')
}

await server.claimResource({ resourceSlug: 'seats', externalId: userId })

Capacity Aggregation

When a subscription has multiple items that provide capacity for the same resource (e.g., a base plan + add-on), the total capacity is aggregated across all subscription items. For example:

Pro Plan provides 10 seats
Seat Add-On provides 5 additional seats
Total capacity = 15 seats

This aggregation happens automatically when calculating usage. The getResourceUsages endpoint returns one entry per resource with the total aggregated capacity, not per subscription item.

Subscription Lifecycle

On Cancellation: When a subscription is canceled, all associated resource claims are automatically released with a releaseReason of "subscription_canceled". This ensures clean capacity management without manual cleanup. Claims Persist Across Adjustments: Resource claims are scoped to the subscription and resource, not to individual subscription items. This means claims survive subscription adjustments—when you upgrade or downgrade plans, existing claims are preserved as long as they fit within the new capacity. On Downgrade: When adjusting a subscription to a plan with lower capacity, Flowglad validates that existing claims fit within the new capacity. If the current claimed count exceeds the new capacity, the adjustment is blocked with an error message:

Cannot reduce seats capacity to 5. 8 resources are currently claimed.
Release 3 claims before downgrading.

The customer must first release enough resources before the downgrade can proceed. Scheduled Downgrade Interim Period: When a downgrade is scheduled for the end of the billing period (rather than immediately), customers retain their current capacity until the change takes effect. During this interim, new claims that exceed the future capacity are allowed but marked as temporary—they have an expiredAt timestamp set to the billing period end and automatically expire when the downgrade executes.

Auto-Resolution

If a customer has exactly one active subscription, the subscriptionId parameter is optional—Flowglad automatically resolves it. For customers with multiple subscriptions, you must specify which one:

// Single subscription - auto-resolved
await server.claimResource({ resourceSlug: 'seats', externalId: userId })

// Multiple subscriptions - must specify
await server.claimResource({
  resourceSlug: 'seats',
  externalId: userId,
  subscriptionId: 'sub_abc123'
})

Full Example: Team Seat Management

Here’s a complete example showing how to implement team seat management:

lib/team-seats.ts

import { flowglad } from './flowglad'

// Check if team can add more members
export async function canAddTeamMember(orgId: string): Promise<boolean> {
  const server = flowglad(orgId)
  const { usage } = await server.getResourceUsage({ resourceSlug: 'seats' })
  return usage.available > 0
}

// Get current team capacity status
export async function getTeamCapacity(orgId: string) {
  const server = flowglad(orgId)
  const { usage } = await server.getResourceUsage({ resourceSlug: 'seats' })

  return {
    used: usage.claimed,
    total: usage.capacity,
    remaining: usage.available,
    percentUsed: usage.capacity > 0
      ? Math.round((usage.claimed / usage.capacity) * 100)
      : 0
  }
}

// Add a member to the team
export async function addMember(params: {
  orgId: string
  userId: string
  userEmail: string
}) {
  const server = flowglad(params.orgId)

  // Check capacity first
  const { usage } = await server.getResourceUsage({ resourceSlug: 'seats' })
  if (usage.available < 1) {
    return {
      success: false,
      error: 'CAPACITY_EXCEEDED',
      message: `Team is at capacity (${usage.capacity} seats). Upgrade to add more members.`
    }
  }

  // Claim the seat (idempotent if user already has one)
  const result = await server.claimResource({
    resourceSlug: 'seats',
    externalId: params.userId,
    metadata: { email: params.userEmail, addedAt: new Date().toISOString() }
  })

  return {
    success: true,
    claim: result.claims[0],
    remainingSeats: result.usage.available
  }
}

// Remove a member from the team
export async function removeMember(params: { orgId: string; userId: string }) {
  const server = flowglad(params.orgId)

  const result = await server.releaseResource({
    resourceSlug: 'seats',
    externalId: params.userId
  })

  return {
    released: result.releasedClaims.length > 0,
    availableSeats: result.usage.available
  }
}

// List all team members with seats
export async function listTeamMembers(orgId: string) {
  const server = flowglad(orgId)
  const { claims } = await server.listResourceClaims({ resourceSlug: 'seats' })

  return claims
    .filter(c => c.externalId !== null)
    .map(c => ({
      userId: c.externalId,
      email: c.metadata?.email,
      joinedAt: new Date(c.claimedAt)
    }))
}

Adjusting Subscriptions with Resources

When customers upgrade or downgrade plans, resource claims are preserved—but capacity validation ensures you can’t reduce capacity below active claims.

Upgrade Flow: Adding More Seats

The most common upgrade is adding more seats to an existing plan. Use the quantity parameter to set the exact number of seats:

lib/add-seats.ts

import { flowglad } from './flowglad'

export async function addSeats(params: {
  customerExternalId: string
  newSeatCount: number
}) {
  const server = flowglad(params.customerExternalId)

  // Increase seats from current amount to newSeatCount
  const result = await server.adjustSubscription({
    priceSlug: 'team_seats', // Your per-seat price
    quantity: params.newSeatCount,
    // timing defaults to 'auto' - upgrades apply immediately with proration
  })

  // After adjustment:
  // - All existing seat claims are preserved
  // - Additional seats are immediately available
  return result.subscription
}

You can also upgrade to an entirely different plan:

lib/upgrade-plan.ts

import { flowglad } from './flowglad'

export async function upgradeToProPlan(customerExternalId: string) {
  const server = flowglad(customerExternalId)

  // Current plan: Starter (5 seats)
  // New plan: Pro (25 seats)
  const result = await server.adjustSubscription({
    priceSlug: 'pro_monthly',
    // timing defaults to 'auto' - upgrades apply immediately
  })

  // After upgrade:
  // - All existing seat claims are preserved
  // - 20 additional seats are now available
  return result.subscription
}

Downgrade Flow

Downgrading requires releasing excess claims first. Flowglad validates capacity before allowing the change:

lib/downgrade-with-seats.ts

import { flowglad } from './flowglad'

export async function downgradeToStarterPlan(params: {
  customerExternalId: string
  seatsToRelease: string[]  // User IDs of members to remove
}) {
  const server = flowglad(params.customerExternalId)

  // Step 1: Check current usage
  const { usage } = await server.getResourceUsage({ resourceSlug: 'seats' })

  // The new plan's capacity - in production, fetch this from your pricing config
  const newCapacity = 5
  const excessClaims = usage.claimed - newCapacity

  if (excessClaims > 0) {
    // Step 2: Validate enough seats are selected for release
    if (params.seatsToRelease.length < excessClaims) {
      throw new Error(
        `Must release at least ${excessClaims} seats, but only ${params.seatsToRelease.length} selected.`
      )
    }

    // Step 3: Release excess claims before downgrading
    await server.releaseResource({
      resourceSlug: 'seats',
      externalIds: params.seatsToRelease
    })
  }

  // Step 4: Now the downgrade will succeed
  const result = await server.adjustSubscription({
    priceSlug: 'starter_monthly',
    // timing defaults to 'auto' - downgrades apply at end of period
  })

  return result.subscription
}

Both immediate and scheduled downgrades are blocked if claimed resources exceed the new capacity. The expiredAt mechanism only applies to new claims made during an interim period after a valid downgrade is scheduled—not to allowing downgrades when excess claims already exist.

Building a Seat Adjustment UI

Here’s how to build a UI that handles seat-aware plan changes:

lib/plan-change-handler.ts

import { flowglad } from './flowglad'

interface PlanChangeResult {
  success: boolean
  error?: string
  seatsToRelease?: number
  affectedMembers?: Array<{ userId: string; email: string }>
}

export async function validatePlanChange(params: {
  customerExternalId: string
  newPriceSlug: string
  newSeatCapacity: number
}): Promise<PlanChangeResult> {
  const server = flowglad(params.customerExternalId)

  // Get current seat usage
  const { usage, claims } = await server.getResourceUsage({
    resourceSlug: 'seats'
  })

  // Check if downgrade would exceed new capacity
  if (usage.claimed > params.newSeatCapacity) {
    const seatsToRelease = usage.claimed - params.newSeatCapacity

    // Identify which members would need to be removed.
    // This example uses FIFO order—customize this logic based on your needs
    // (e.g., let admins choose, exclude certain roles, use last-in-first-out, etc.)
    const affectedMembers = claims
      .filter(c => c.externalId !== null)
      .slice(0, seatsToRelease)
      .map(c => ({
        userId: c.externalId!,
        email: (c.metadata?.email as string) ?? 'unknown'
      }))

    return {
      success: false,
      error: `This plan includes ${params.newSeatCapacity} seats, but you have ${usage.claimed} members.`,
      seatsToRelease,
      affectedMembers
    }
  }

  return { success: true }
}

Subscriptions - Resources are attached to subscription features
Subscription Management - Adjusting subscriptions with adjustSubscription
Usage - For consumption-based tracking instead of allocation
Products - Define resource capacity in product features
SDK Reference - Full SDK documentation for resources

Features

Concepts

​The Resource Data Model

​Key Concepts

​Capacity

​Resource Claims

​Named vs Anonymous Claims

​Common Use Cases

​Setting Up Resources

​Step 1: Create a Resource in Your Pricing Model

​Step 2: Add Resource Capacity to a Product

​Working with Resources in Your App

​Checking Available Capacity

​Claiming Resources

​Releasing Resources

​Listing Active Claims

​API Response Shapes

​Resource Usage

​Resource Claim

​Important Behaviors

​Idempotent Named Claims

​Capacity Enforcement

​Capacity Aggregation

​Subscription Lifecycle

​Auto-Resolution

​Full Example: Team Seat Management

​Adjusting Subscriptions with Resources

​Upgrade Flow: Adding More Seats

​Downgrade Flow

​Building a Seat Adjustment UI

​Related

The Resource Data Model

Key Concepts

Capacity

Resource Claims

Named vs Anonymous Claims

Common Use Cases

Setting Up Resources

Step 1: Create a Resource in Your Pricing Model

Step 2: Add Resource Capacity to a Product

Working with Resources in Your App

Checking Available Capacity

Claiming Resources

Releasing Resources

Listing Active Claims

API Response Shapes

Resource Usage

Resource Claim

Important Behaviors

Idempotent Named Claims

Capacity Enforcement

Capacity Aggregation

Subscription Lifecycle

Auto-Resolution

Full Example: Team Seat Management

Adjusting Subscriptions with Resources

Upgrade Flow: Adding More Seats

Downgrade Flow

Building a Seat Adjustment UI

Related