Environments

Lira provides two environments — sandbox for development and testing, and live for production traffic.

Overview

	Sandbox	Live
Key prefix	`lira_sandbox_...`	`lira_live_...`
Real data processed	No	Yes
Real provider queries made	No	Yes
Use for	Development, QA, integration testing	Production traffic
Cost	Free	Billed per verification

The only difference between sandbox and live is the API key you use. No code changes are required when switching — update the X-API-Key value in your environment variables and everything else stays the same.

Important: Never use a live API key in test or development code. If a live key is accidentally committed to version control or exposed in logs, revoke it immediately from the dashboard or via DELETE /client/api-keys/:id.

Sandbox test data

Use the following test inputs in sandbox. Each produces a deterministic, predictable result so you can test all branches of your integration code.

Bank accounts

Account Number	Bank Code	Country	Expected result
`0000000000`	`044`	`NG`	`status: success` — returns "Test Account, Access Bank"
`0000000001`	`044`	`NG`	`status: failed` — `ACCOUNT_NOT_FOUND`
`0000000002`	`044`	`NG`	`status: error` — provider error simulation
`0000000000`	`030`	`GH`	`status: success` — returns "Test Account, Ghana Commercial Bank"

Note: Test account numbers are short (10 digits for Nigeria). In production, real Nigerian bank accounts are also 10 digits — this is the NUBAN format. Do not pad or modify these values when testing.

Phone numbers

Phone Number	Country	Network	Expected result
`08000000000`	`NG`	—	`status: success` — returns "Test User"
`08000000001`	`NG`	—	`status: failed` — `SUBSCRIBER_NOT_FOUND`
`0200000000`	`GH`	`MTN`	`status: success` — returns "Test User GH"

Async mode in sandbox

Async verifications in sandbox complete within a few seconds of submission — significantly faster than the live environment, which depends on real provider response times. Use the same test data listed above.

When you submit a verification with "mode": "async" in sandbox, Lira returns status: pending immediately, then delivers a webhook event to your registered endpoint once processing completes. This lets you test your full async integration — including signature verification and event handling — without waiting for real provider queries.

Note: Your webhook URL must be publicly reachable for sandbox deliveries. Use a tool like ngrok or Cloudflare Tunnel during local development to expose your local server.

Switching to production

When you are ready to go live:

Create a live API key. Call POST /client/api-keys with "environment": "live" using your Bearer token. Store the key immediately — it is only shown once.
Update your environment variable. Replace the lira_sandbox_... value with your lira_live_... key. Do not change any endpoint URLs or request formats.
Ensure your webhook URL is HTTPS and publicly reachable. localhost and private IP ranges are not permitted in the live environment.
Review the Go-Live Checklist before sending real traffic. See Go Live for the full checklist covering authentication, error handling, webhook security, and more.

Next steps

Go Live — complete checklist before switching from sandbox to live traffic
API Keys — create, list, and revoke keys for each environment
Webhooks — register and manage webhook endpoints

Authentication

API Keys