We Built a Public API With Test/Live Key Isolation. Here's How It Works Under the Hood.

Most API platforms give you test keys and live keys. Stripe does it. Twilio does it. It feels like magic - you test against a sandbox, flip to production, and nothing leaks. We just shipped a Public REST API for PaperLink - a document sharing and analytics platform. Our test/live isolation uses the simplest possible architecture: one boolean column in the same table. No separate databases, no shadow schemas, no data duplication. Here's how it works, why it's safe, and what the actual requests lo