> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.placematic.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# How do I test before production?

> Trap geometry, in CI, with a control. And verify every entitlement with one curl before sprint planning.

# How do I test before production?

**Short answer:** Verify entitlements with `curl` before you write code. Then assert, in CI, that a constrained truck is **refused** on known trap geometry — with a car-mode control proving the test exercises the constraint.

## Step 1 — entitlement, before sprint planning

One `curl` per endpoint you plan to use. Ten minutes.

```bash theme={null}
curl -gX GET 'https://router.hereapi.com/v8/routes' \
  --data-urlencode 'transportMode=truck' \
  --data-urlencode 'origin=42.0641,-88.0509' \
  --data-urlencode 'destination=41.5250,-88.0817' \
  --data-urlencode 'vehicle[height]=410' \
  --data-urlencode "apiKey=${HERE_API_KEY}" -G
```

`200` = entitled. `401` = wrong key. `403` = **right key, missing entitlement.**

<Warning>
  A `403` in week one is information. A `403` in week six is a schedule failure and a credibility failure.
</Warning>

## Step 2 — trap geometry, in CI

<Warning>
  **Do not ship truck routing without this test.** It is the reason bridge strikes make the news.
</Warning>

Route a 410 cm vehicle through these. **Any path returned is a failure.**

| Location                               | Why                                            |
| -------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------- |
| 11foot8 bridge, Durham NC              | Clearance well below 4.1 m                     |
| Storrow Drive, Boston MA               | Commercial vehicles prohibited; low overpasses |
| Southern State Parkway, Long Island NY | Commercial vehicles prohibited                 |

```python theme={null}
@pytest.mark.parametrize("name,origin,dest", TRAPS)
def test_truck_refused(name, origin, dest):
    with pytest.raises(NoRouteError):
        truck_route(origin, dest, TALL_TRUCK)


@pytest.mark.parametrize("name,origin,dest", TRAPS)
def test_car_control_routes(name, origin, dest):
    """A car MUST route. Proves the test exercises the constraint,
    not a bad coordinate or a network failure."""
    car_route(origin, dest)   # must not raise
```

<Tip>
  **The car-mode control is not optional.** Without it, a test that fails because your coordinates are wrong looks identical to a test that passes because the constraint worked.
</Tip>

**Wire this into CI, not a manual QA checklist.** A refactor that drops `vehicle[height]` from a params dict is invisible in code review and obvious in a failing test.

## Step 3 — watch the units

<Warning>
  `vehicle[height]` is **centimetres**. `vehicle[grossWeight]` is **kilograms**.

  Pass `4.1` and you have declared a four-centimetre truck. It routes under every bridge in North America. The response is `200`.

  Units are not validated for plausibility. Validate them yourself.
</Warning>

## Step 4 — validate against ground truth, not against a competitor

For routing quality: take 500 real historical trips with telematics actuals. Route them. Compare against **what the vehicle actually did**, not against another platform.

Two wrong answers can agree.

**Report the residual distribution — median, p90, p99 — not the mean.** A platform whose durations are unbiased on average but have twice the variance produces twice as many late deliveries.

## What a sandbox key is and isn't

**Sandbox and production keys are separate credentials.** Same endpoints, different quotas. Never ship a sandbox key.

**A free tier is not a pilot.** A free tier is a rate-limited product boundary. A pilot is a commercial arrangement scoped to your use case, with the APIs you actually need enabled.

## Common misconceptions

**"I'll test truck routing manually before launch."**
The constraint that silently disappeared in a refactor is the one that ends up in an incident report.

**"Two points in a parking lot proved the constraint works."**
Synthetic coordinates route under any constraint set. Test on geometry designed to reject you.

**"200 means the route is valid."**
`200` with an empty `routes` array means no path exists. For truck and hazmat routing, that's a correct answer.

**"I'll validate on the free tier."**
Confirm the free tier includes the API you're validating. It may not.

## Related

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Truck Routing" href="/guides/truck-routing">
    Constraints, units, and the trap geometry in detail.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Calculate a Truck Route" href="/examples/truck-route">
    Working code, with the CI assertions.
  </Card>

  <Card title="How do I validate the migration?" href="/faq/how-do-i-validate-the-migration">
    Ground truth, distributions, and shadow comparison.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Getting a HERE API Key" href="/start-here/getting-a-here-api-key">
    Entitlements, and why `403` is a commercial conversation.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

***

Need production HERE API keys or implementation support? Placematic is an official HERE Technologies reseller and implementation partner. [Talk to us](https://placematic.com/contact/).