Test vs Live Environment

Overview

Every Rakomi tenant has two environments by default: Live (production) and Test (sandbox). Test environments let you build and test your auth integration without affecting real users.

This follows the same model as Stripe’s test/live mode — your API key prefix determines the environment.

API Key Prefixes

Environment	Prefix	Purpose
Live	akm_live_	Production — real users, real emails
Test	akm_test_	Sandbox — test users, emails suppressed

Both keys are created automatically when you sign up. Find them in Dashboard → API Keys.

Key Differences

Test Environment

• Users created with test keys are auto-verified (no email verification needed)
• Emails are suppressed — never sent to external providers, but logged for preview in the dashboard
• Test users are not counted toward MAU — Free tier developers can test freely
• Webhooks use a separate test webhook URL (localhost and ngrok allowed)
• Rate limits have a 2x multiplier on auth endpoints for faster iteration
• Test data is auto-purged after 90 days

Live Environment

• Standard email verification flow
• Emails sent via transactional email provider
• Users counted toward MAU and billing
• Strict SSRF validation on webhook URLs (HTTPS only, no private IPs)
• Standard rate limits

Quick Start

1. Use your test API key for development

   Your test key starts with akm_test_. Use it in your development environment.

2. Register test users

   Users created via test API key are auto-verified — no email check needed.

3. Test webhooks locally

   Set your test webhook URL to http://localhost:3000/webhooks in Dashboard → Webhooks settings.

4. Switch to live when ready

   Replace akm_test_ with akm_live_ in your production deployment. That’s it.

Token isolation

JWTs are environment-aware. Tokens issued with a test API key contain an rkm_env: 'test' claim. The SDK automatically rejects tokens from a different environment than the configured API key.

Dashboard Environment Toggle

The dashboard has a global environment toggle in the sidebar. Switching to “Test” filters all views (users, events, API keys) to show only test data. A persistent amber banner indicates when you’re viewing test data.

Test Webhook URL

Each webhook configuration can have a separate test URL. Test webhooks support:

• localhost / 127.0.0.1 / ::1 (HTTP allowed on ports 3000-9999)
• *.ngrok.io / *.ngrok-free.app (HTTPS required)

No circuit breaker is applied to test webhooks — failures are logged but won’t disable delivery.

Email Preview

Test environment emails are never sent. Instead, they’re rendered and stored for preview in the dashboard’s “Test Emails” section. This includes password reset URLs, verification links, and all transactional emails.

Seeding Test Data

Use the seed endpoint to generate synthetic test users quickly:

curl -X POST https://api.rakomi.com/v1/auth/dashboard/tenants/{slug}/environments/{envId}/seed \
  -H "Cookie: __ra_session=..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"count": 10}'

Generated users have synthetic emails (test+name@{slug}.rakomi.dev) and are pre-verified.

Resetting Test Environment

Use Dashboard → Settings → Reset Test Environment to bulk-delete all test data. This removes all test users, sessions, and events while keeping your API keys and configuration intact.

Tip

Test data older than 90 days is automatically purged by a daily cron job.

GDPR Considerations

Test users with real email addresses are still personal data under GDPR. Best practices:

• Use the seed endpoint for synthetic data (test+*@*.rakomi.dev)
• Reset test environment regularly
• Don’t use real customer emails for testing

Plan Limits

Plan	Non-live Environments	Test Users per Environment
Free	1 (test)	1,000
Pro	1 (test)	5,000
Business	Up to 3 (test, staging, dev)	10,000
Enterprise	Unlimited	Unlimited