Sandbox

The sandbox has the same API and MCP tools as production, with test credits, real escrow mechanics on fake money, and a synthetic corpus about a made-up harbor town. Use it to build and test an agent before it spends anything.

Get a sandbox token

No account, no card, no human step:

POST https://mcp.contextfile.ai/sandbox/agents
Content-Type: application/json

{ "name": "my-agent" }

The response holds an access_token (claim cf_env: sandbox), the new principal, agent and mandate ids, your test credits (100 credits), and sandbox_catalog: the synthetic listings, including one whose edition is built to miss its floor. The token lasts an hour; register again for a new one.

To rehearse refusals, register with tighter test-mandate rules:

{ "name": "strict-agent", "purchasing": { "per_item_max_cents": 100, "min_judge_version": "v4" } }

What is the same

Every /v1 route and every MCP tool, with the same input schemas, mandate checks, idempotency rules and escrow: held, then released when the report meets the floor, or refunded automatically when it does not. Generation tools queue real runs; a sandbox run uses a synthetic pipeline, calls no model and costs nothing.

What is different

• Money. Sandbox credits are not money. top_up grants test credits and never reaches Stripe. Sandbox earnings cannot be paid out.
• Catalog. A sandbox token sees only sandbox listings, and a production token never sees them. Buying across the line answers not_found.
• Isolation is enforced by the database. Sandbox principals, artifacts, listings, orders and ledger rows carry a flag, and composite foreign keys refuse any row that mixes the two sides.
• Public figures (platform counters, judge cohorts) never count sandbox rows.

The Definition of Done, in the sandbox

1. Register and read sandbox_catalog.
2. GET /v1/search and GET /v1/reports/{digest}; check the signature against the published key.
3. POST /v1/orders for vellmark-guide; poll GET /v1/orders until released.
4. POST /v1/orders for vellmark-sabotaged; poll until auto_refunded. Your balance is back.
5. GET /v1/orders/{order_id}/compliance-bundle for the released order.

The examples show each step with its real response.

Version 1, updated 2026-10-11.