Environments¶

Circuit provides separate environments for development and production use.

Available Environments¶

Environment	Base URL	Purpose
Sandbox	`https://sandbox.circuit-kyc.com`	Development & testing
Production	`https://api.circuit-kyc.com`	Live operations

Sandbox Environment¶

The sandbox environment is for development and testing:

Free credits included for testing
Simulated data - no real KYC network access
No compliance requirements
Lower rate limits (25 req/min)

When to Use Sandbox¶

Initial integration development
Unit and integration testing
CI/CD pipeline testing
Demos and POCs

Production Environment¶

The production environment handles real customer data:

Real network data from partner institutions
Credit charges apply to all operations
Full compliance requirements enforced
Higher rate limits based on tier

Production Checklist¶

Before going live:

[ ] Complete KYB verification
[ ] Request production API access
[ ] Configure webhook endpoints
[ ] Set up error monitoring
[ ] Enable auto-recharge (recommended)
[ ] Review security best practices

Switching Environments¶

SDKs auto-detect environment from API key prefix:

PythonTypeScript

from circuit_kyc import CircuitClient

# Sandbox (auto-detected from sk_sandbox_)
sandbox = CircuitClient(api_key="sk_sandbox_...")

# Production (auto-detected from sk_live_)
production = CircuitClient(api_key="sk_live_...")

# Or specify explicitly
client = CircuitClient(
    api_key="your-key",
    environment="production"
)

import { CircuitClient } from '@circuit-kyc/sdk';

// Sandbox
const sandbox = new CircuitClient({ apiKey: 'sk_sandbox_...' });

// Production
const production = new CircuitClient({ apiKey: 'sk_live_...' });

Environment Variables¶

Recommended setup using environment variables:

# Development (.env.development)
CIRCUIT_API_KEY=sk_sandbox_your-sandbox-key

# Production (.env.production)
CIRCUIT_API_KEY=sk_live_your-production-key

import os
from circuit_kyc import CircuitClient

client = CircuitClient(api_key=os.environ["CIRCUIT_API_KEY"])