diff --git a/docs/payments.md b/docs/payments.md
index 31bdde6..d87f489 100644
--- a/docs/payments.md
+++ b/docs/payments.md
@@ -145,23 +145,20 @@ produced had it resolved synchronously.
 with no memory of the request that started the payment. Something has to persist enough to
 answer "which order/cart does gateway reference X belong to?" between the two calls.
 
-**Read directly from `lunarphp/stripe`'s own source** (`StripePaymentType::authorize()`,
-`ProcessStripeWebhook`, `WebhookController`) to see how Lunar itself solves this — confirmed
-it does **not** stash a generic opaque blob. It writes the correlating ids as real, typed
-columns on `Lunar\Stripe\Models\StripePaymentIntent` (`cart_id`, `order_id`) at the moment the
-intent is created/first seen, then reads them back the same way when the webhook arrives:
+The precedent for this originally came from reading `lunarphp/stripe`'s own source
+(`StripePaymentType::authorize()`, `ProcessStripeWebhook`, `WebhookController`) — that package
+solved this the same way, writing the correlating ids as real, typed columns on its own
+`StripePaymentIntent` model rather than a generic opaque blob. **`lunarphp/stripe` has since
+been removed from this project** in favour of depending on `stripe/stripe-php` directly (see
+CHANGELOG.md) — `Modules\Core\Payment\Models\StripePaymentIntent` is now a first-party model
+over the same table shape, kept for exactly the same reason.
 
-```php
-// ProcessStripeWebhook::handle() — falls back through two real lookups,
-// neither of them a generic context blob:
-$cart = StripePaymentIntent::where('intent_id', $this->paymentIntentId)->first()?->cart
-    ?: Cart::where('meta->payment_intent', '=', $this->paymentIntentId)->first();
-```
-
-**`StripePaymentDriver` follows this exact precedent**: it reads `cart_id`/`order_id` out of
-`$context` at `pay()`/`authorize()` time and writes them onto its own `StripePaymentIntent`
-row (a table already owned by `lunarphp/stripe`, already shaped for exactly this), then reads
-them back the same way in `handleCallback()`. No generic `context` json column, no new table.
+**`StripePaymentDriver` follows this pattern**: it reads `cart_id`/`order_id` out of `$context`
+at `pay()`/`authorize()` time and writes them onto its own `StripePaymentIntent` row (`src/
+Payment/Models/StripePaymentIntent.php`, table `stripe_payment_intents`), then reads them back
+the same way in `handleCallback()`. No generic `context` json column beyond what that table
+already carries (`context`, added for a different purpose — see that migration's own
+docblock), no new table.
 
 ### This pattern is per-driver, not a shared table
 
@@ -176,6 +173,35 @@ a shared generic one.
 
 ---
 
+## Reconciliation — a charge that succeeds on Stripe but is never written locally
+
+This app never creates or reuses a Stripe **Customer** object — every PaymentIntent is a
+one-off (`StripePaymentDriver::createAndConfirm()`'s own `$params` never includes a `customer`
+key), and nothing calls Stripe's Customer API anywhere in this codebase. That's a deliberate
+choice, not an oversight: a Customer object only earns its keep if something actually needs it
+(saved/reusable payment methods, subscriptions, Stripe-side lifetime-value grouping across
+orders) — none of which exist in this checkout flow today. Creating one anyway would just be
+more PII sitting on a third party's servers for no functional benefit, and it would become
+another cross-reference a future Payment privacy provider has to account for (detaching/
+deleting the Customer on erasure, not just the local PaymentIntent row). If a real feature
+needs it later (e.g. "save my card"), add it then, scoped to that feature.
+
+The gap this creates: with no Customer object and no other identifying field previously sent
+to Stripe, a PaymentIntent that succeeds on Stripe's side but is never written to our own DB
+(e.g. a database outage at exactly the wrong moment, between Stripe confirming the charge and
+`rememberIntent()`'s insert) would be **untraceable** back to a cart or order — nothing to
+search Stripe's dashboard by except amount, timestamp, and card last-4.
+
+**Fix**: `createAndConfirm()` now sets `metadata: ['cart_id' => ..., 'order_id' => ...]`
+(`array_filter()`-ed, since `order_id` isn't known yet at initial `pay()`/`authorize()` time —
+same null-coalesce `rememberIntent()` already does) on every PaymentIntent. This is metadata
+only, visible on Stripe's own dashboard/API for manual reconciliation — it does not create a
+Customer object and does not change anything about how `handleCallback()`/webhook correlation
+works (that still goes through `stripe_payment_intents`, per "Async resolution" above). It's
+purely a recovery aid for the case where our own write never happened at all.
+
+---
+
 ## Explicitly out of scope for this pass
 
 - **`Checkout`/`Order` wiring** — how `Checkout` calls into `Payment`, how `Order`/`Checkout`
diff --git a/src/Payment/Drivers/StripePaymentDriver.php b/src/Payment/Drivers/StripePaymentDriver.php
index b304a37..159f512 100644
--- a/src/Payment/Drivers/StripePaymentDriver.php
+++ b/src/Payment/Drivers/StripePaymentDriver.php
@@ -115,6 +115,25 @@ class StripePaymentDriver implements
             $params['payment_method'] = $data['payment_method'];
         }
 
+        // Reconciliation safety net: this app never creates a Stripe Customer
+        // object and attaches no other identifying info to the PaymentIntent
+        // (see docs/payments.md "Reconciliation" for the full reasoning), so
+        // without this, a charge that succeeds on Stripe's side but is never
+        // written to our own DB (e.g. a DB outage at exactly the wrong
+        // moment) would be untraceable back to a cart/order — nothing to
+        // search Stripe's dashboard by except amount/time/card last-4.
+        // array_filter() drops order_id when it's not yet known (still null
+        // in $context at initial pay()/authorize() time — see
+        // rememberIntent()'s own null-coalesce for the same case).
+        $metadata = array_filter([
+            'cart_id' => $context['cart_id'] ?? null,
+            'order_id' => $context['order_id'] ?? null,
+        ]);
+
+        if ($metadata !== []) {
+            $params['metadata'] = $metadata;
+        }
+
         try {
             $paymentIntent = $this->stripe->getClient()->paymentIntents->create($params);
         } catch (ApiErrorException $e) {