Developer Guide
Staging Environment

16min
Staging Environment
The Voltage Payments staging environment provides a safe, sandbox environment for testing your Lightning Network integrations using Mutinynet, a global Bitcoin signet. This guide will help you understand how to use the staging environment effectively.
Overview
The staging environment allows you to:
Test Lightning Network payment functionality without real funds
Develop and validate your integration before moving to production
Access automatic line of credit for testing
Experiment with the API without financial risk
Getting Started
Base URL
All API requests for staging and mainnet environments should be made to:
Text
https://voltageapi.com/v1
https://voltageapi.com/v1
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Authentication
Navigate to the "API Keys" page in your dashboard
Generate a new API key specifically for the staging environment
Include your API key in requests using the x-api-key header
Staging Wallets
Automatic Line of Credit
When using Mutinynet, your organization automatically receives a line of credit for testing purposes. Unlike mainnet:
No application process is required
No collateral or bank verification needed
No billing cycles or payments to manage
How the Line of Credit Works
Automatic Creation: A line of credit is automatically created when you create your first Mutinynet environment Wallet
Credit Limit: Each Mutinynet environment comes with a 1 BTC default credit limit
Finding Your Line of Credit ID: Your line of credit ID is displayed on the API Keys page in your dashboard for convenient access
Wallet Creation:
Wallets created through the UI have a default limit of 0.05 BTC
When creating wallets through the API, you can set any limit value as long as there's enough allocation left in your line of credit
Automatic Expansion: If you need additional credit for testing, creating a new wallet through the dashboard UI will automatically expand your line of credit with an additional 1 BTC buffer
Deleting Wallets: When a wallet is deleted, its allocation is freed up within the line of credit, but the total line of credit limit remains unchanged
Creating a Staging Wallet
To create a new staging wallet, you'll need:
Your organization ID
Your environment ID
Your line of credit ID (found in the UI)
Example request:
Bash
curl 'https://voltageapi.com/api/v1/organizations/{organization_id}/wallets' \
  --request POST \
  --data '{
    "environment_id": "{environment_id}",
    "id": "7a68a525-9d11-4c1e-a3dd-1c2bf1378ba2",  # UUID you generate
    "line_of_credit_id": "your-line-of-credit-id",
    "limit": 100000000,
    "metadata": {
      "tag": "testing wallet"
    },
    "name": "My First Wallet",
    "network": "mutinynet"
  }'
curl 'https://voltageapi.com/api/v1/organizations/{organization_id}/wallets' \
  --request POST \
  --data '{
    "environment_id": "{environment_id}",
    "id": "7a68a525-9d11-4c1e-a3dd-1c2bf1378ba2",  # UUID you generate
    "line_of_credit_id": "your-line-of-credit-id",
    "limit": 100000000,
    "metadata": {
      "tag": "testing wallet"
    },
    "name": "My First Wallet",
    "network": "mutinynet"
  }'
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Testing Payments
Sending Payments
You can test sending payments without worrying about real funds or billing cycles. The staging environment allows you to:
Send test Lightning payments
Experiment with different payment amounts
Test error handling and payment states
Developer Guide
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Receiving Payments
The staging environment supports full testing of payment receiving functionality:
Generate test invoices
Monitor payment status changes
Receiving
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Payment Status Flow
Monitor payment status transitions in your staging environment:
For sent payments: sending → completed or failed
For received payments: receiving → completed or failed
Best Practices
Environment Separation
Use different API keys for staging and production
Clearly label test wallets and payments
Use meaningful metadata for testing scenarios
Testing Scenarios
Test both successful and failed payment flows
Validate error handling
Test payment status monitoring
Monitoring
Regularly check wallet balances
Monitor payment history
Test API response handling
Limitations
While the staging environment closely mirrors production functionality, be aware of these differences:
Uses Mutinynet instead of mainnet Bitcoin
No real funds are involved
No billing cycles or invoices
Automatic line of credit approval
May have different rate limits than production
Moving to Production
When you're ready to move to production:
Submit a mainnet application
Complete the approval process
Set up required collateral or bank verification
Generate new API keys for production
Update your integration to use production endpoints
Wallet Management
Team Management