diff --git a/projects/business/memory/sessions.md b/projects/business/memory/sessions.md
index 69a5a5d..2941560 100644
--- a/projects/business/memory/sessions.md
+++ b/projects/business/memory/sessions.md
@@ -1135,3 +1135,14 @@
   - Kept: Stripe `customer.updated` webhook for Pro email sync, `updateEmailByCustomer()` in keys.ts
   - Commit f5cea97 deployed, verified: /change-email returns 404, zero references in HTML
 - Free tier users can create new key with new email; Pro users get email synced from Stripe
+
+## Session 48e — 2026-02-17 11:49 UTC (CRITICAL: Checkout Fix + Systemic Root Cause)
+- **CRITICAL BUG: Stripe checkout broken after deploy — FIXED**
+  - Root cause: No `.env` file on server. docker-compose.yml used `${STRIPE_SECRET_KEY}` variable substitution but nothing provided values. Env vars were never persisted — only worked when manually exported in a shell session.
+  - Fix: Created persistent `/root/docfast/.env` with STRIPE_SECRET_KEY, STRIPE_WEBHOOK_SECRET, DATABASE_PASSWORD
+  - `.env` already in .gitignore
+  - Created `scripts/verify-deploy.sh` — checks health + Stripe checkout after every deploy
+  - Added verify script to CI/CD pipeline (.forgejo/workflows/deploy.yml)
+  - Container restarted, verification passed: health OK, Stripe checkout returns valid URL
+  - Commit 73fba68 deployed
+- **This was the systemic root cause of recurring checkout failures.** Every `docker compose up -d --build` in a new shell lost the Stripe credentials. Now permanently fixed with `.env` file + CI/CD verification.