The Sandbox is an isolated copy of your workspace where you can set up and test every integration — API, webhooks, SSO, inbound email, and the widget — without creating real tickets or touching your live data. Open it from Settings → Integrations → Sandbox.
Open the sandbox
- As the account owner, open Settings → Integrations → Sandbox.
- Click Open sandbox. It signs you in automatically on
sandbox.essential.supportin a new tab, using the same one-time SSO handoff described in the Contact Support link guide. - If it is not available yet you will see The sandbox isn’t available. — the sandbox must be enabled for your platform first; ask your Essential Support operator to turn it on.
While testing, point your app’s integration at sandbox.essential.support. Nothing there touches your live workspace, and you can click Reset sandbox at any time to wipe all sandbox data (tickets, webhooks, keys) and start fresh — reopen it from Settings afterwards.
What you can test
- API — create a sandbox API key and submit a ticket from your backend; it lands in the sandbox, never your live workspace.
- SSO — generate a sample sign-in token for the sandbox and open it, or paste a token your app minted and get a pass/fail with the exact reason. Validate against the sandbox secret or your live workspace secret.
- Webhooks — register an endpoint, send a signed test event, and confirm your signature check works. Your live webhook URLs are copied in to start, each with its own fresh signing secret. A built-in checker recomputes the HMAC and tells you why a signature header passes or fails.
- Inbound email — forward a message to the sandbox ingest address and watch it become a ticket.
- Widget — add a test origin and paste the snippet; a live preview shows the launcher.
Live config checks (against your real workspace)
A few checks read your real workspace settings, read-only, so you can confirm production without leaving the sandbox:
- Custom domain — checks the CNAME, CAA, and live TLS certificate for a host you enter.
- Send test email — sends one real email through your live outbound configuration.
- Account linking — lints your live URL templates and shows a resolved example.
Example: test your SSO tokens
- In the sandbox, open the SSO section.
- Click Generate sample token, then Try it — it opens the sandbox portal and signs in a test customer, so you can see the full handoff land.
- To check your own code, paste a JWT your backend minted, choose Against the sandbox secret or Against my live workspace secret, and click Validate. A valid token shows the email; an invalid one shows the exact reason (for example expired or bad signature).