5-Minute Onboarding

Quickstart Guide

Get started with Playground API in under 60 seconds. Zero API keys, zero authentication configuration, and zero credit card required.

1Test Live Server Connectivity

Execute a real-time request to the health check endpoint GET /api/v1/health.

2Fetch & Mutate in Your Favorite Tool

Choose your programming language or framework below to see ready-to-use code snippets with stateful session persistence.

quickstart-fetch

// 1. Fetch posts with credentials to isolate your visitor session

const response = await fetch('https://playground.nileslabs.com/api/v1/posts?_limit=5', {

credentials: 'include', // Automatically attaches/receives pg_identity cookie

});

const data = await response.json();

console.log('Posts:', data.data || data);

// 2. Create a persistent post in your sandbox

const createRes = await fetch('https://playground.nileslabs.com/api/v1/posts', {

method: 'POST',

headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },

credentials: 'include',

body: JSON.stringify({

title: 'My First Stateful Post',

body: 'This post persists across page reloads in your session overlay!',

user_id: 1,

}),

});

const newPost = await createRes.json();

console.log('Created Post:', newPost);

3How Your Private Sandbox Stays Isolated

Playground API ensures multiple developers, test runners, and browsers never collide or overwrite each other. Here is how your identity is resolved:

Browser Apps (Cookie-Based)

When making requests from a web browser, pass credentials: 'include' (or Axios withCredentials: true). The backend assigns an HMAC-signed pg_identity cookie.

CI/CD & Mobile (Header-Based)

For Playwright test workers, Postman, or mobile apps without cookies, pass the header X-Playground-Identity: worker-1. Each worker receives its own isolated database overlay.

4Inject Latency & Chaos Parameters

Test UI skeleton loaders and error boundary states instantly by attaching query parameters to any REST endpoint:

?_delay=1500

Artificial Latency

Forces a 1500ms delay to test loading spinners and skeleton placeholders.

?_status=500

Simulate Server Error

Returns HTTP 500 Internal Server Error to test toast alerts and retry buttons.

?_flaky=true

Flaky Network Jitter

Simulates real-world mobile jitter with randomized delay (200-2500ms) and 10% dropped packets.

Resetting Your Sandbox to Pristine Baseline

Need a clean slate? Execute DELETE /api/v1/session/reset to immediately wipe your visitor mutations overlay and revert all core resources to the factory seed data.

Learn more about sandbox reset & snapshots

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