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Testing & Sandbox

PostEverywhere does not have a separate sandbox environment, but there are several strategies to test your integration safely without publishing live posts.

Dry Run Mode​

The Bulk Schedule endpoint supports a dryRun parameter that validates every post in the batch without actually creating or scheduling them.

Request​

curl -X POST https://app.posteverywhere.ai/api/v1/posts/bulk \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer pe_live_abc123..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "dryRun": true,
    "posts": [
      {
        "text": "Hello from the API!",
        "accountIds": ["acc_123", "acc_456"],
        "scheduledAt": "2026-04-15T10:00:00Z"
      },
      {
        "text": "",
        "accountIds": ["acc_999"],
        "scheduledAt": "2025-01-01T00:00:00Z"
      }
    ]
  }'

Response​

{
  "dryRun": true,
  "total": 2,
  "valid": 1,
  "invalid": 1,
  "results": [
    {
      "index": 0,
      "valid": true
    },
    {
      "index": 1,
      "valid": false,
      "errors": [
        { "code": "validation_error", "message": "Text is required." },
        { "code": "invalid_accounts", "message": "Account acc_999 not found." },
        { "code": "past_schedule_time", "message": "Scheduled time is in the past." }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Dry run validates text content, account IDs, media attachments, scheduling times, and platform-specific constraints -- all without creating any posts.

Testing Strategies​

1. Use Dry Run for Bulk Validation​

Before sending a production batch, run it with dryRun: true first. This catches validation errors (invalid accounts, missing text, past schedule times) without consuming your rate limit budget on failed create requests.

2. Create Dedicated Test Accounts​

Connect social accounts that you use exclusively for testing on each platform. For example, create a private X account, a test Instagram business account, and a test LinkedIn page. This way, test posts publish to accounts your audience never sees.

3. Schedule-Then-Delete​

Create posts scheduled far in the future (e.g., one year from now), inspect them via the API, then delete them before they publish:

# Schedule a post for next year
curl -X POST https://app.posteverywhere.ai/api/v1/posts \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer pe_live_abc123..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "text": "Test post - will be deleted",
    "accountIds": ["acc_123"],
    "scheduledAt": "2027-04-15T10:00:00Z"
  }'

# Inspect the post
curl https://app.posteverywhere.ai/api/v1/posts/post_abc123 \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer pe_live_abc123..."

# Delete before it publishes
curl -X DELETE https://app.posteverywhere.ai/api/v1/posts/post_abc123 \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer pe_live_abc123..."

4. Verify Media Before Attaching​

Upload media and confirm it processes successfully before using it in posts:

# Upload
curl -X POST https://app.posteverywhere.ai/api/v1/media/upload \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer pe_live_abc123..." \
  -F "[email protected]"

# Check status (poll until "ready")
curl https://app.posteverywhere.ai/api/v1/media/med_abc123 \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer pe_live_abc123..."

# Response when ready:
# { "id": "med_abc123", "status": "ready", "mimeType": "image/jpeg", ... }

Only attach media to posts once the status is ready. See Media Requirements for file size and dimension limits.

Rate Limits Apply to All Calls​

Test requests count against your rate limits: 60 requests per minute and 1,000 per hour. Plan your test loops accordingly to avoid hitting rate_limit_exceeded errors.

If you are running automated test suites, add a short delay between requests:

// Simple delay between test API calls
async function testWithDelay(calls, delayMs = 1100) {
  for (const call of calls) {
    await call();
    await new Promise((resolve) => setTimeout(resolve, delayMs));
  }
}

See Rate Limits for the full details on limits and headers.

Pinterest Sandbox​

Pinterest offers a dedicated sandbox environment for API testing. If you are integrating with Pinterest specifically, you can use the sandbox to test pin creation without publishing to live boards. Contact support at [email protected] if you need Pinterest sandbox access enabled for your account.

Production Readiness Checklist​

Before going live, verify each of these:

  • Authentication works. Your API key returns a 200 on GET /accounts.
  • Error handling is implemented. Your code handles 400, 401, 429, and 500 errors distinctly (see Error Handling).
  • Retry logic uses exponential backoff. Retries only fire for 429 and 5xx responses.
  • Rate limits are respected. You are not exceeding 60 requests/minute.
  • Media uploads are validated. You check that media status is ready before attaching to posts.
  • Scheduling times are in the future. All scheduledAt values are at least 5 minutes ahead.
  • Dry run passes. A bulk dry run of your typical payload returns zero errors.
  • Post results are polled. You track publishing results via Get Post Results and handle failures.
  • Scopes are correct. Your API key has the minimum scopes needed (see Scopes).