---
title: "Going live"
description: "Move an integration from a sandbox and its bk_test_ key to a live business and its bk_live_ key, with the checklist of what to change and what to check first."
url: "https://bookatu.com/en-nz/developers/going-live"
language: "en"
section: "Developers"
---

# Going live

A sandbox and a live business answer the same API in the same way, so going live is a change of key and of business, not of code. Go through this list before you switch.

## Switch to a live key

1. The live business's owner or an admin makes a live key in its admin, at `/{slug}/admin/api`, with the scopes your integration needs and no more. It starts `bk_live_` and is shown once.
2. Store it as a secret, in your server's secret manager or environment: never in browser or mobile code, and never in a URL.
3. Point your integration at the live business's slug: `https://bookatu.com/api/v1/{slug}`.
4. Replace the `bk_test_` key with it. A test key at a live business is refused with `403` `LIVEMODE_MISMATCH`, so a key left behind fails loudly rather than quietly.
5. When the business needs the AI & API add-on for its keys (it is included on the Scale plan), the owner turns it on first; without it a keyed call answers `403` `Enable the AI & API add-on`.

## Checklist

- The live key is stored as a secret on your server only, and no test key is left in your production configuration.
- Your webhook endpoints are made again on the live business: a sandbox's endpoints and their signing secrets do not carry over. Each live endpoint has its own signing secret, shown once; verify every delivery with it.
- Your code checks `livemode` (or the `Bookatu-Livemode` header) and never treats a `livemode: false` answer or webhook as real, nor a `livemode: true` one as a test.
- You send `Bookatu-Version` with the version you tested against, so a later version never changes what you get.
- You handle `429`: wait `Retry-After` seconds and back off with jitter (see [Rate limits](https://bookatu.com/developers/rate-limits)).
- Deposit, card-hold and no-show flows were tried with the simulated checkout and the simulator, a declined card and an expired checkout included.
- No test data is copied into the live business: its clients, bookings and services are its own, and a sandbox's made-up clients must never be imported.
- A front end on the keyless endpoints no longer sends `Bookatu-Livemode: false`.
- Your error handling reads `code` (such as `TIME_NEEDS_OFFSET`, `DEPOSIT_NEEDS_BOOKING_PAGE`, `CARD_REQUIRED_USE_BOOKING_PAGE` or `MANAGE_KEY_REQUIRED`) rather than the words, which may change.

## After you switch

Keep the sandbox for testing your next change, and reset it when its data gets in the way; it is deleted after 30 days without use, with a warning 7 days before. Watch the [changelog](https://bookatu.com/developers/changelog), and your logs for a `Deprecation` header.