Sandbox Mode
Test your integration end-to-end — enrolling Authority Records and publishing — without any risk of the result reaching the public National AI Feed.
Two Fully Separate Modes
Sandbox Mode works the same way many API platforms separate test and live environments. Every API Key is created in one mode or the other, communicated directly in the key’s prefix. Test and live data never mix, never appear in the same list, and are never cross-visible — not as a display filter, but structurally, at the database level.
A key beginning with naf_test_ is a Test Mode key. Authority Records, Publications, and account activity created with it are completely isolated from your live data. A key beginning with naf_live_ is your real, production data — the only thing that can ever appear in the public feed.
Creating a Test Key
In your Provider dashboard, toggle Test Mode in the header before creating a new API Key. The key you receive will be generated in whichever mode the toggle is currently set to — the dashboard shows an explicit “TEST KEY” or “LIVE KEY” label at creation time so there’s no ambiguity about which kind you just made.
Example test key
Use it exactly like a live key — same header, same endpoints, same request shapes.
What’s Isolated
A request authenticated with a test key can only see and act on test data. It cannot read, edit, suspend, or publish against a live Authority Record — attempting to do so returns the same “not found” response as a genuinely nonexistent id, never a special mode-mismatch error that would confirm a live record’s existence.
| Resource | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Authority Records | Fully siloed — a test-mode request never sees live records or vice versa. |
| Publications | Fully siloed — same isolation as Authority Records. |
| Publish attempts (including failures) | Fully siloed — a failed test-mode publish never appears in your live activity. |
| Activity log | Fully siloed — reflects “your account history for the mode you’re currently in.” |
| API Keys list | Not siloed, deliberately — your full key inventory (test and live together) is always visible, since managing your keys is an account-settings concern, not a “which environment am I working in” concern. |
Guarantees
Test data can never reach the public National AI Feed
Test Publications are never cryptographically signed. The feed-generation process excludes them at two independent points — the signing step itself, and separately from the final output — so test records do not enter the production publication pipeline.
Using Sandbox Mode in the Dashboard
Machine integrations never need to think about mode explicitly — it’s determined entirely by which key you send. The Provider dashboard is different: since browsing and creating data through the dashboard uses a session, not a key, it needs its own explicit toggle.
Toggle Test Mode in the dashboard header → an amber banner confirms you’re in sandbox → every view (Authority Records, Publications, Activity Log) reloads to show only that mode’s data
→ toggle off to return to live.
Implementation Support
Providers integrating sandbox testing into their own QA or staging workflows
may coordinate directly with Aigistry for guidance.