Powered by Pegno — Developer Documentation

Why Pegno

Trust infrastructure for the service economy.

Marketplaces spend years building matching, ranking, and review systems — and then hand the payment moment back to bank transfer or cash with no protection. That gap is where deals collapse. Pegno closes it in one integration.

Regulated escrow, out of the box

Funds sit in real safeguarding accounts under FCA SPI/EMI (GB), AFSL (AU), sponsor-bank arrangements (US), and MAS licensing (SG). You don't need your own licence.

Milestone-based release

Buyers pay upfront but funds release to providers only as milestones complete. Perfect for jobs spanning days, weeks, or multiple stages.

Three-tier dispute resolution

Platform resolves first. Pegno adjudicates unresolved cases. Regulatory ombudsman as final backstop. FCA DISP-compliant by default.

One API, four regions

Same endpoints for AU, GB, US, and SG. Set the region field per transaction; Pegno routes to the right safeguarding rail.

Two hours to integrated

Hosted checkout redirect works immediately. Full headless integration takes a weekend. SDKs for Node, Python, PHP, Ruby coming Q3.

Reliable webhooks

HMAC-SHA256 signed. Retry with exponential backoff up to 8 times over 5 days. Full delivery audit log accessible via API.

Quickstart

Your first protected transaction in three steps.

Get sandbox credentials, create a transaction, redirect the buyer. From nothing to a working checkout URL in under 10 minutes.

Get sandbox credentials

Email developers@pegno.app with your platform name, region, and expected use case. Sandbox API keys are issued within one business day for regulated fintechs and established marketplaces.

# Sandbox base URL
https://api-sandbox.pegno.co/v1

# Your sandbox key
Authorization: Bearer pk_test_a1b2c3d4e5f6g7h8

Create a protected transaction

Call POST /v1/transactions with the buyer, provider, amount, and region. You get back a hosted checkout URL to redirect your buyer to.

POST /v1/transactions
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Bearer pk_test_a1b2c3d4e5f6

{
  "partner_reference": "chk_job_12345",
  "amount_minor": 47500,           // £475.00
  "currency": "GBP",
  "region": "GB",
  "title": "Boiler installation",
  "buyer": {
    "email": "jane@example.com",
    "name": "Jane Smith"
  },
  "provider": {
    "email": "bob@bobsplumbing.example",
    "name": "Bob's Plumbing"
  }
}

Redirect the buyer to checkout

The response includes a checkout_url. Redirect your buyer there. Pegno handles funding, safeguarding, milestone tracking, releases, and disputes. You get webhooks at every stage.

HTTP/1.1 201 Created

{
  "id": "tx_a1b2c3d4-e5f6-7890",
  "status": "created",
  "checkout_url": "https://checkout.pegno.co/tx/a1b2c3d4-e5f6-7890",
  "checkout_expires_at": "2026-07-04T12:00:00Z",
  "amount_minor": 47500,
  "currency": "GBP",
  "region": "GB",
  "pegno_fee_minor": 950,
  "milestones": [{
    "sort_order": 1,
    "value": 47500,
    "name": "Full completion",
    "status": "pending"
  }],
  "created_at": "2026-07-01T12:00:00Z"
}

API Reference

Endpoints.

The v1 API surface. Email developers@pegno.app for the full OpenAPI specification or to request sandbox access.

POST /v1/transactions Create a milestone-based transaction and get a checkout URL

GET /v1/transactions/{id} Retrieve a transaction and its current state

POST /v1/transactions/{id}/milestones/{id}/submit Provider submits a milestone for buyer approval

POST /v1/transactions/{id}/milestones/{id}/approve Buyer approves a milestone and releases funds

POST /v1/transactions/{id}/disputes Open a dispute on a transaction

POST /v1/webhooks Register a webhook endpoint for event delivery

Webhooks

Events, delivered.

Every state change fires a webhook. Payloads are HMAC-SHA256 signed. Verify signatures before trusting delivery.

`transaction.created`

Transaction record created. Buyer has not yet funded.

`transaction.funded`

Funds received into safeguarding. Provider can begin work.

`milestone.submitted`

Provider has submitted a milestone for buyer review.

`milestone.approved`

Buyer approved and funds released to provider.

`dispute.opened`

A party has raised a dispute. Handling flow begins.

`transaction.completed`

All milestones released. Transaction is closed.

Embed protected payments into your platform in a weekend.