Process CartAPI

Sandbox workspaces

Build and test an integration against a separate workspace flagged as a sandbox — pc_test_ keys, the same base URL, data isolated from your live workspace.

View this page as Markdown

A sandbox is a separate workspace you build and test an integration in before it touches live data. It is a whole workspace of its own — its own workflows, runs, members and keys — with one flag set in Settings → API.

The two-account flow

  1. Sign up a second account (or have a colleague do it) and create a workspace for testing — "Acme sandbox".
  2. In that workspace, open Settings → API and switch on This workspace is a sandbox. An Admin can flip it; the change is audited.
  3. Create API keys there. Keys minted while the flag is on carry the pc_test_ prefix, and GET /v1/me reports "sandbox": true for them. Existing keys keep the prefix they were minted with.
  4. Import your real workflows into the sandbox with GET /v1/workflows/{id}/template on the live workspace and POST /v1/workflows on the sandbox — the portable template carries the whole buildable workflow (Workflows & schema).
  5. Point your integration at the sandbox key. The base URL is the same (https://app.processcart.com/api/v1); only the key decides which workspace you are in.

Data stays isolated per workspace: a sandbox never sees another workspace's runs, members or webhooks, and nothing you do there reaches your live workspace. Webhooks registered in the sandbox deliver sandbox events only.

What a sandbox does not change

  • Limits are the same (600 requests per minute per key).
  • Email still sends if the sandbox workspace has email configured — leave it on the shared sending mode or point it nowhere while testing.
  • A key always acts on the workspace that minted it, whatever its prefix: the prefix only records whether that workspace was flagged as a sandbox when the key was minted. A key minted in the sandbox can never read or change the live workspace's data, and a key minted in the live workspace never touches the sandbox — so a sandbox key minted before the flag was switched on still reads pc_live_, and still acts on the sandbox only.

When you are ready, mint a pc_live_ key in the live workspace and swap it in; the requests do not change.