From Sandbox Key to Production Traffic Without KYC: The Pre-Launch Checklist

From Sandbox to Production: What Changes

A sandbox key validates that your code can call models. A production key must survive real users, traffic spikes, and payment realities. Before you flip the switch, verify the items below on the aggregator side—not just your application logic.

1. Confirm Balance Headroom and Top-Up Mechanics

Production traffic consumes real balance. Unlike free sandbox quotas, live calls are billed at official price × 1.3, so budget accordingly.

• Check current balance and estimate headroom against your expected launch volume. A good rule: enough balance to cover at least several days of peak usage before your first top-up.
• Top up with USDC on Base before launch, not during an incident. Confirm the deposit address and network match, and that your wallet can send USDC on Base.
• Verify the top-up reflects in your balance and that your key can immediately use the new funds. No KYC step should block you—if it does, resolve it now.
• Set a low-balance alert in your own monitoring by polling the balance endpoint (if available) or tracking spend client-side. Do not rely on the provider to warn you.

2. Lock Down Model Aliases and Routing

Aliases are convenient in sandbox but dangerous if they change. Production code should not depend on transient names.

• Pin model identifiers to the exact strings your integration was tested against. Avoid generic aliases that may map to different versions over time.
• Check alias stability by calling the same alias twice with a trivial prompt and comparing the response metadata (model name/version) if the API exposes it.
• Document the alias-to-model mapping in your config and keep it version-controlled. If the aggregator renames or deprecates an alias, you want a one-line config change, not a code refactor.
• Test fallback order if you use multiple models: ensure your code can switch aliases without redeploying.

3. Harden Error Handling for Live Traffic

Sandbox errors are gentle; production errors cost money and user trust. Treat every failure mode explicitly.

• Distinguish error classes: authentication (invalid key), balance (insufficient funds), rate limiting (429), model availability (5xx or model-specific errors), and malformed requests (4xx). Each needs a different response—retry, backoff, alert, or fail fast.
• Implement retries with exponential backoff and jitter for transient errors (429, 5xx). Do not retry 4xx errors other than 429; they will not succeed.
• Set timeouts appropriate to the model and workload. Long generations need longer timeouts, but unbounded waits tie up resources.
• Log request IDs and model aliases with every error so you can correlate with provider status. Avoid logging full prompts if they contain sensitive data.
• Simulate failures in staging: use an invalid key, a depleted balance, and an unknown alias to confirm your error paths behave.

4. Verify Pricing and Contributor Mechanics If Relevant

If your integration includes contributors (e.g., a shared key model), confirm how credit works before launch.

• Understand the cost model: users pay official price × 1.3. Key contributors are credited official price × 1.1 (or × 1.2 for premium) in USDC. This is not a discount for end users; it is a contributor credit.
• Test the credit flow in a small amount if you rely on it. Confirm that contributor USDC credits appear as expected.
• Document the economics for your team so no one assumes net cost drops below official price.

5. Run a Production-Like Smoke Test

Before announcing, run a short, low-volume test with the production key.

• Call each model alias you will use with a realistic prompt.
• Confirm token accounting and spend appear in your dashboard or logs.
• Top up a small amount via USDC on Base and verify the balance increases.
• Trigger one controlled error (e.g., invalid alias) and confirm your alert fires.

6. Prepare Operational Runbooks

Production traffic needs a response plan for common incidents.

• Insufficient balance: where to top up, expected confirmation time, and who holds the wallet keys.
• Model outage: which fallback alias to switch to and how to deploy the change.
• Key compromise: how to rotate the aggregator key and update secrets.
• Cost spike: what thresholds trigger investigation and how to cap usage (e.g., per-user limits in your app).

Final Check: No-KYC Is Not No-Ops

The absence of KYC removes onboarding friction, but it does not remove operational responsibility. Your production readiness depends on balance headroom, alias discipline, and error handling—not on the payment method. Verify these on the aggregator side before real users arrive, and keep the checklist handy for the next launch.