Sandbox and live

Every account exists twice: a sandbox and a live side. They are separate in every way that matters, so nothing you do while testing can touch real money or real orders.

Choosing a sideCopy Anchor Link

In the dashboard, use the Sandbox / Live switch at the top right. New accounts start in the sandbox.

In the API, the key decides. A rhq_test_ key can only ever reach the sandbox, and a rhq_live_ key can only ever reach the live side. There is no parameter to switch.

Create each key on the side you want it for: switch the dashboard to that side, then open Developers.

What the sandbox doesCopy Anchor Link

• Test funds. Add them from the Wallet page. They cannot be withdrawn or spent on the live side.
• Phone numbers are issued instantly from a +1 555 range and never receive real SMS. Send one a test message from its page in the dashboard.
• Domains, on a deployment configured for it, go to the registrar's own test environment (OT&E): names are really registered there, behave like real registrations, resolve nowhere and cost nothing. Otherwise the built-in test provider answers, where whether a name is "available" is a fixed function of the name, so the same search always gives the same answer.
• Mailboxes are not created at Google. They come up within seconds with realistic sign-in details that don't work anywhere. See Mailboxes.
• Prices in the sandbox are test prices. Do not quote them to customers.
• Webhooks are real: events are signed and delivered to your endpoint exactly as on the live side.

What is open on the live sideCopy Anchor Link

Phone numbers are live on accounts that have a carrier enabled. Domains need a registrar key on the deployment, and mailboxes need a mailbox provider key; while either is missing, that product's routes answer 422 not_available on the live side.

GET /v1/account tells you what the calling key can order:

{
  "environment": "sandbox",
  "products": { "numbers": true, "domains": true, "licences": true }
}

products.licences is about mailbox licences, which are no longer sold. It does not cover mailboxes. To see whether mailboxes can be ordered, call GET /v1/mailboxes/price: it answers 422 not_available where they cannot.