Two ways to test a Check before it reaches customers.
The Demo Sandbox is Knotbind's own small test server. A connected staging API is yours. Checks run against one of the two, and neither one is your production system.
Demo Sandbox
The Demo Sandbox is a real HTTP server that Knotbind runs for demos, onboarding and tests. It is not a picture of a server. Its controls change how it answers, and they change it only for your account. Another customer's Demo Sandbox is unaffected.
In normal mode it answers one request:
GET /customers/1
200 { "id": "1", "name": "Example Customer" }The dashboard controls do the following:
| Control | What changes |
|---|---|
| Change API contract | GET /customers/1 starts requiring region=eu and returns HTTP 422 until the Check sends it. |
| Simulate outage | Every request returns HTTP 503. |
| Restore | Responses go back to normal. |
| Reset | Responses go back to normal, and the Reliability loop is set up again with the current Checks. |
A normal demonstration runs in this order:
- Run a Check and see it pass.
- Choose Change API contract.
- Run Checks again and read the failed evidence and the Finding.
- Choose Restore or Reset.
- Run Checks again and see the recovery.
Connected staging API
During onboarding, choose Connected staging API and
give a public HTTPS address. Knotbind resolves each Check against that
address. A Check for GET /customers/1 against
https://staging.example.com/api calls:
https://staging.example.com/api/customers/1A connected staging API is called under these limits:
- HTTPS only, to a public address.
- The address is checked again at request time, so it cannot be switched to a private network after you save it.
- A Check path stays on that same address. It cannot point at another host.
- Only GET and POST are sent.
- A request stops after 10 seconds.
- The response is capped in size.
- Redirects are not followed.
MCP servers
An MCP integration does not use the Demo Sandbox or the staging address. Knotbind calls the MCP server you registered, sends the initialization handshake, and then calls the tool named by the Check. If that server needs a credential, you give the name of an environment variable. Knotbind reads the value when it calls the server and does not store the credential on the account.
See how a failed Check becomes a fix, or how an MCP server is watched.