# Go to production

> The honest go-live checklist — what's left after the sandbox before you can emit DTEs with real tax validity: digital certificate, SII certification, real CAF, and switching the API key.

Emitting in the sandbox proves your integration works: the request shape,
state handling, errors. It does **not** prove you're ready to
emit documents with real tax validity — that goes through the same SII
certification process every Chilean taxpayer faces, whether they use
Simplo or any other system. This page is that checklist, without
sugar-coating: two of the seven items take weeks, and that's exactly where
Simplo earns its keep.

> **Production emission is enabled per company:**
> The **sandbox** is self-serve — you create your key and emit, without
> asking anyone (see [Quickstart](/en/comienza/quickstart/)). Emitting **with
> real tax validity** via API key, on the other hand, is enabled by Simplo
> company by company once the requirements on this page are complete. To
> activate it, email [hola@simplo.cl](mailto:hola@simplo.cl).

## The checklist

| # | Requirement | Who does it? |
| - | ----------- | -------------- |
| 1 | A valid digital certificate for your company (issued by an SII-accredited authority — e-CertChile, Acepta, etc.), uploaded to your Simplo account | You (or Simplo manages it for you, as a managed service) |
| 2 | SII certification completed for your RUT: test suite, simulation, information exchange, printed samples, authorization resolution | Simplo accompanies you — this is the core of the product |
| 3 | A real CAF requested from the SII, for every document type you plan to emit | You, from the SII portal |
| 4 | Production emission enabled for your company | Simplo ([hola@simplo.cl](mailto:hola@simplo.cl)), once you confirm your go-live |
| 5 | A production key (`sk_simplo_...`, without the `_sandbox_` infix) created at app.simplo.cl → Desarrolladores | You, self-serve once item 4 is enabled |
| 6 | Change the `SIMPLO_API_KEY` environment variable from your sandbox key to your production key. **Nothing else.** | You |
| 7 | Review your plan's rate limits | You |

Item 6 is the phrase that justifies everything else: **going to production
is changing the API key; your code doesn't change.** Same endpoint
(`POST /api/v1/billing/dte`), same request/response contract, same states.
What changes is which issuing RUT sits behind the key and whether the
document actually reaches the SII.

## Why items 2 and 3 take weeks

The honesty of this table is the asset, not a flaw to hide:

- **SII certification (#2)** isn't a Simplo procedure — it's an SII process
  every Chilean electronic issuer goes through, with six stages
  (application, test suite, simulation, information exchange, printed
  samples, authorization). It takes weeks, not minutes, and depends on the
  SII's own review timelines, not Simplo's. See
  [Chilean electronic invoicing](/en/referencia/facturacion-electronica/#the-certification-process-concept)
  for the concept, and the official SII sources linked there.
- **The real CAF (#3)** is issued by the SII, by range and document type —
  it's not something Simplo can generate for you, unlike the sandbox's
  synthetic CAF. See [Folios and CAF](/en/referencia/folios-caf/).

Hiding this behind the sandbox would produce exactly the churn the sandbox
exists to prevent: a developer who thinks they're "almost ready" because
their sandbox works, then hits weeks of paperwork nobody warned them about.

## What the sandbox never proves

See the full detail in
[Try the unhappy paths](/en/comienza/casos-infelices/#what-the-sandbox-does-not-simulate).
In short: XSD and business-rule validation from the real SII, certification
itself, real folio and certificate expiry, real SII outages/latency/rate
limits, and intercambio. The sandbox's amounts and VAT ARE real — same
calculation engine — but that never substitutes for actually going through
the SII.

## Related

- [Quickstart](/en/comienza/quickstart/) — your first DTE, in the sandbox
- [Try the unhappy paths](/en/comienza/casos-infelices/) — what you CAN
  learn from the sandbox before getting here
- [Digital certificate](/en/referencia/certificado-digital/) — the endpoint
  and how to monitor its validity
- [Folios and CAF](/en/referencia/folios-caf/) — how real folios get
  uploaded
- [Chilean electronic invoicing](/en/referencia/facturacion-electronica/) —
  the SII certification process, with official sources
- [Authentication](/en/comienza/autenticacion/) — sandbox vs production
  keys

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HTML version: https://docs.simplo.cl/en/comienza/pasar-a-produccion/ · Agent index: https://docs.simplo.cl/llms.txt