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403 Forbidden

activation_forbidden — Activation forbidden

Message “Activating a cascade requires production access. It stays a draft, which runs in test mode.”

What causes it

  • `PATCH /workflows/{id}` sent `active: true` from an account without production access. An explicit activation is refused rather than silently dropped.
  • The request used a docs key (the key these docs pages mint for you when you are signed in). Docs keys are sandbox-only, so they cannot activate a cascade even on an approved account. The message then reads "Docs keys are sandbox-only, so they cannot activate a cascade. Activate it in the app or with a key from /api-keys. It stays a draft, which runs in test mode."
  • Note that `POST /workflows` and `POST /workflows/generate` do not raise this — they save the cascade as a draft and add a `note` to the response instead.

How to fix it

  1. Leave `active` out of the update; a draft cascade can still be triggered in test mode.
  2. With a docs key, activate the cascade in the Cascades app, or send the same request with a key from /api-keys.
  3. Without production access, request production approval, then activate.

Operations that return it

Example response

HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden · Content-Type: application/json

403 Forbidden
{
  "error": {
    "code": "activation_forbidden",
    "message": "Activating a cascade requires production access. It stays a draft, which runs in test mode.",
    "details": [
      {
        "field": "active",
        "message": "requires production access"
      }
    ],
    "request_id": "6f1c2a3e-8d4b-4c5e-9f0a-1b2c3d4e5f60",
    "doc_url": "https://cascades.crscreditapi.com/docs/api/errors/activation_forbidden"
  }
}