# Sandbox

A sandbox is a separate organization that runs on test money (test USDC on Base
Sepolia and Arc testnet), and every organization can have one. You can use it to
connect an agent, write a policy, and [test payments](https://docs.catena.com/test-in-sandbox.md) before
you move real money. Apart from the differences listed below, our sandbox works
the same way a live organization does.

## Open the sandbox

An admin has to open the sandbox the first time, by choosing **Switch to
sandbox** in the organization menu at the top of the console's sidebar. After
that, anyone on your team can switch between live and sandbox from the same
menu.

We create the sandbox when it's first opened, which can take a few seconds. A
new sandbox comes with the following:

- The sandbox's first account.
- A counterparty named **Catena**.
- A sandbox **Default Policy**, which lets an agent read every account and send
  test funds back to Catena.

The Default Policy is enough for a first test payment. For anything more, we
recommend writing your own [policy](https://docs.catena.com/policies.md).

## Differences

Below are the areas where the sandbox differs from a live organization:

| Area                  | In the sandbox                                                                                                                                                                                  |
| --------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Money                 | Test USDC on Base Sepolia and Arc testnet. **Deposit** requests test USDC on Base Sepolia, once an hour. To move test USDC to Arc testnet, send it there. OUSD is not available in the sandbox. |
| Bank transfers        | Not available.                                                                                                                                                                                  |
| x402 and MPP payments | Base Sepolia only.                                                                                                                                                                              |
| Notifications         | Email only. Slack notifications are not available.                                                                                                                                              |

Everything else works as it does in a live organization, including agents,
policies, counterparties, approvals, activity, reports, the CLI, the MCP
connection, the SDK, and x402 payments.

## Agents in the sandbox

An agent connected to the sandbox is not connected to your live organization.
When you approve a CLI link or sign in to an MCP connector, you'll choose which
organization the agent joins. To move an agent's work to live, connect it to the
live organization and give it a live policy.

In the sandbox, commands that take a network accept `base-sepolia` and
`arc-testnet`.

## Up next

[Test in the sandbox](https://docs.catena.com/test-in-sandbox.md): step 5 of 5 in Get started.