Test mode

Every account has two key modes. They hit the same API surface with the same code — only the backend differs.

	pv_test_	pv_live_
Getting one	POST /v1/sandbox — instant, anonymous	Signup + card
Results	Deterministic, canned, fixture corpus	Real GPU inference
Credits	Can never hold or spend credits	Metered
Speed	Analyses complete in seconds	Workload-shaped
Expiry	7 days (sandbox)	Until revoked

Instant sandbox

curl -s -X POST https://api.primateintelligence.ai/v1/sandbox

No email, no card, no human. The response includes the key, a pre-seeded fixture video id, the fixture prompt, and the expected answer. IP-limited (default 3 provisions per 24h → 429 sandbox_limit_exceeded).

This is the zero-touch path for agents and CI: build and verify the entire integration before any human signs up. Graduating to live is a billing gate, not an integration gate — your code doesn't change.

Deterministic fixtures

On test keys, analyses against the fixture corpus return canned results — same input, same output, every time. That makes them assertable in CI:

curl -s https://api.primateintelligence.ai/v1/test-fixture

{
  "name": "presence",
  "test_video_url": "https://primateintelligence.ai/empty-state/forklift-demo.mp4",
  "test_prompt": "Is there a forklift in this video?",
  "expected_answer": "yes",
  "expected_confidence_min": 0.8
}

CI verification pattern

# conftest-friendly integration check (runs in seconds, costs nothing)
from primate_intelligence import Primate

def test_primate_integration():
    client = Primate()  # PRIMATE_API_KEY = a pv_test_ key in CI secrets
    videos = client.videos.list()
    analysis = client.analyses.create_and_wait(
        video_id=videos["data"][0]["id"],
        prompt="Is there a person in this video?",
        timeout_s=60,
    )
    assert analysis["result"]["answer"] == "yes"
    assert analysis["result"]["confidence"] >= 0.8

Every code sample in these docs runs in CI against this exact mechanism — docs that don't run don't ship.

Limits of test mode

• Fixture corpus only — you can't upload arbitrary videos for real analysis on a test key (uploads work mechanically, but analysis results are canned)
• No live streaming GPU sessions
• 403 test_mode_only marks operations unavailable in your key's mode

When you need real inference on your own footage: sign up, add a card, create a pv_live_ key, change the env var. Done.