Overview
Build the local loop around Persona sandbox behavior and captured contract fixtures, not around calls to production. Sandbox performs no real verification, supports forced pass or fail paths, and incurs no usage charges.
Prerequisites
- Sandbox-only API key and template
- HTTPS-capable webhook tunnel or local fixture runner
- Synthetic identities and a secret-safe fixture directory
Instructions
Step 1: Declare the scenario
Name the template, forced outcome, inquiry state, expected event type, API version, and cleanup disposition.
Step 2: Create with an operation key
Create a sandbox inquiry using a unique Idempotency-Key. Persist IDs separately from synthetic payloads.
Step 3: Exercise the client path
Use the supported sandbox flow to force pass or fail. Do not encode sandbox-only controls into production request code.
Step 4: Capture raw webhook bytes
Save headers and raw body before parsing, redact PII, and preserve duplicate deliveries and deliberately reordered fixtures.
Step 5: Replay deterministically
Verify HMAC against raw bytes, deduplicate by event ID, order business processing by data.attributes.created-at, and assert the terminal local state.
Step 6: Reset without hiding drift
Delete only generated local artifacts through the project’s approved cleanup path; retain the contract fingerprint and test receipt.
Authentication
Use a sandbox bearer key for REST requests and a separate sandbox webhook secret for HMAC verification. Never expose either value in a tunnel URL, fixture, console log, or committed .env file.
Tool Discipline
Use Read and Grep to inspect application configuration, provider documentation, fixtures, schemas, tests, and redacted operational evidence before proposing a change. Use Write or Edit only for an approved implementation, configuration, test, runbook, or redacted receipt. Do not create, resume, approve, decline, redact, rotate, revoke, deploy, or otherwise mutate production Persona resources without explicit operator approval.
Output
- Named sandbox scenario and synthetic inquiry receipt
- Redacted raw webhook fixture set
- Replay, duplicate, ordering, and terminal-state assertions
Return the environment, resource and event identifiers, API version, template context, source-contract fingerprint, evidence, unresolved risk, rollback state, and final decision without exposing bearer keys, webhook secrets, inquiry session tokens, raw identity documents, or unnecessary PII.
Examples
The government-id-fail scenario creates a sandbox inquiry, forces failure, captures two deliveries of the same event, replays them out of order, and proves exactly one transition to the expected failed state.
Error Handling
| Failure | Response |
|---|---|
| Tunnel receives parsed JSON only | Disable body transformation and retain the exact raw bytes before JSON parsing. |
| Fixture signature fails after editing | Regenerate the signature from the edited timestamp and raw body; never weaken verification. |
| Sandbox and production settings diverge | Record the drift and stop promotion until templates, events, and API version are reviewed. |
Validation
Verify the result against the linked first-party evidence, the pinned API version, redacted contract fixtures, an expected failure path, and the documented rollback or manual-disposition path. A successful request is not proof of a successful identity decision.