Sandbox & testing

The sandbox is a safe environment to explore and validate your ekko integration before going live.
It mirrors the production API and SDK behaviour, but no real contributions are processed.

Getting access

1. Request sandbox access from your ekko contact
2. Activate your ekko Hub account using the link in your activation email
3. Log in to ekko Hub → go to Developer Console
4. Generate a new sandbox API key

Your sandbox API key should be used in the X-Api-Key header for all calls until you move to production

What you can test

• API integration flow → Create a brand, calculate impact, make a portfolio contribution, trigger a reversal
• Checkout SDK → Create checkout sessions, initialise the SDK with a clientSecret, render the component, and confirm toggle events update your basket totals
• Post-purchase SDKs → Create ImpactPay sessions and initialise the takeover or embedded component
• ImpactPay URL → Generate hosted links with POST /impactpay/calculate and test journeys from confirmation emails or receipts
• Webhooks → Simulate events such as IMPACT_PAYMENT and IMPACT_PAYMENT_REVERSAL to verify your listener processes retries and validates signatures

Best practices

• Mirror your intended production use cases in sandbox, including success, error, and reversal flows
• Use realistic transaction data (currencies, MCC codes, amounts) so impact calculations are accurate
• Store sandbox referenceId and impactPaySessionId alongside your own orderReference for reconciliation testing
• Check how SDK components behave on desktop and mobile, including slow connections and refresh/back-navigation

Moving forward

Once you’ve validated your flows in sandbox, you’ll be ready to follow the Go-live checklist to switch to production keys and endpoints.