Understanding sandbox vs. production

Two environments

Environment enforcement

A sandbox key only works on the sandbox host and a production key only on the production host; the wrong combination returns 403 environment_mismatch.

Sandbox behaviour

• Responses are static samples. They do not change with your request, so a screening in the sandbox does not tell you whether a party would match in production
• Endpoints without a sample return { "success": true, "sandbox": true, "data": {} }
• Subscriptions are still required (use Subscribe to all in the Developer Portal)
• Webhooks you register are real deliveries to your URL

Where production data comes from

Each production response states its source in meta.dataSource: live (queried now), database (loaded by a scheduled job), computed, or seed (a small development sample, for example vessels, C-TPAT partners and DEA lookups). Read it before relying on a result.

Switching to production

1. Create a production key (cg_pk_...) 2. Subscribe to the APIs you need in the production environment 3. Change the host to api.compliancegrid.ai 4. If you use OAuth tokens, request a new token with the production key