# Accounts and keys

URL: /start/accounts · Id: `page:start/accounts`

> One sign-in owns every Startup you start, and each Startup gets its own Stripe account, its own test and live records, and keys scoped to one job.

You sign in once, and that account owns every [Startup](/business/nouns/startup) you start. Each Startup gets its own Stripe account, its own records and its own keys.

## What you need up front
A sign-in, and nothing else. No Stripe account, card or domain comes first: the agent builds the whole business in test, and Stripe enters when you claim it.

## Who owns the business
The [Company](/business/nouns/company) that holds a Startup owns its Stripe account, its [Domains](/business/nouns/domain) and its records. It is seller of record on every [Order](/business/nouns/order). A founder who starts on their own forms that Company when the Startup is created.

A Startup started inside a [Studio](/business/nouns/studio) sells under the Studio's Company until it graduates. It graduates when a cofounder is seated, it raises, it is sold, or its traction warrants its own entity. Its own Company then [forms](/systems/legal-and-corporate/form-my-company), and its [Agreements](/business/nouns/agreement), Domains, accounts and records move to it.

When you claim a Startup, the platform opens a Stripe connected account in its name. You give Stripe your identity and the bank account payouts go to.

A Stripe account you already have stays yours and never becomes the Startup's. Its past charges import read-only, so the history carries over. [Merchant account](/systems/finance/merchant-account) has the full terms.

## Test and live
Every Startup runs in `test` and `live` over one definition. A record made in `test`, such as a sample [Customer](/business/nouns/customer)'s payment, never appears in `live`. Nothing in `test` charges a card or sends a message.

A Startup stays in `test` until you claim it and [launch](/business/nouns/startup/launch) it. [Test and live](/code/builders/startup/test-and-live) covers what `test` simulates.

## Keys for code and agents
Your agent connects through the MCP server and a sign-in in your browser, so it never holds a secret key. Code uses an `sk_test_` key in `test` and an `sk_live_` key in `live`.

Each key reaches one environment and only the [Verbs](/business/nouns/verb) its scope names, and a scope never widens. [Keys](/code/api/guides/keys) lists every kind and how to rotate one.

## People and other Startups
To add a person, say "invite my cofounder as CTO". [Invite a person to a role](/agents/invite-a-person-to-a-role) seats them in a [Role](/business/nouns/role) with its own [Limits](/business/nouns/limit).

One account holds any number of Startups, each with its own Stripe account, books and agents. A person who buys from two of them is one identity, under [one set of rules](/systems/trust-and-governance/one-person-many-startups).