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Sandbox — Learner Mode (training environments)

Spin up an Enterprise Sandbox in "Learner Mode" to onboard a brand-new user without giving them real access to your live org. The sandbox runs on the Learner plan (all 9 suites visible for hands-on exploration), every outbound email/SMS/integration is intercepted, every enrichment lookup is mocked (no provider spend), and trainees cannot promote any change back to the parent org. The toggle is one checkbox on the existing Create Sandbox modal.

Open in CRMown →

Steps

  1. Go to Enterprise > Sandbox and click "Create sandbox".
  2. Fill the name + optional description as usual.
  3. Check "Spawn in Learner Mode" (purple-bordered toggle near the bottom of the modal). The copy explains exactly what changes when you enable it.
  4. Click Create. The sandbox spawns with plan=learner on the cloned org — your parent plan (Pro/Max) is overridden for this clone only.
  5. Once the clone is ready, open the sandbox detail page. You'll see a purple "Learner Mode" badge next to the status pill.
  6. Click the "Trainees" tab (only appears for learner-mode sandboxes). Enter the trainee's email + optional name and click "Send invite."
  7. The trainee receives a magic-link signup email (CRMown branded) and creates their password on first click. They log in directly INTO the sandbox — they never touch your real org.

Good to know

  • A trainee invited to a learner sandbox is a TEAM-role user IN the sandbox org. Their User.orgId points to the sandbox, not the parent. This is the inverse of the standard sandbox flow (where parent-org users switch context into the sandbox) — done intentionally so the trainee has no path to see real org data.
  • Promotion of changes back to the parent org is hard-blocked at the API layer for learner-mode sandboxes. Trainees can edit workflows, create contacts, run AI flows — none of it leaves the sandbox. The "Changes" tab on the sandbox detail page shows an explanatory message instead of the diff/promote UI.
  • You can invite up to 25 trainees per day per inviter (5/min throttle). The cap exists to prevent accidental or hostile spamming of magic-link emails.
  • Trainees cannot buy Boost Packs (the learner plan is blocked from boost purchases). They CAN run AI Bar queries within the sandbox's plan-scoped AI token budget (Learner plan = 100K tokens/mo).
  • When you delete the learner sandbox, the trainee's User row is dropped alongside the sandbox org. Their magic-link login stops working, and they have no separate identity that survives.
  • Learner Mode sandboxes share the same 30-day expiry + 180-day max-lifetime caps as standard sandboxes. Extend them with the "Extend +30d" button just like a regular sandbox.
  • Brief 20a Phase 0: ALL sandbox orgs (learner-mode AND standard) now run with mocked enrichment. Hunter/Apollo/ZoomInfo calls in sandbox mode return deterministic mock data — no real provider spend. The mock for Northstar seed contacts is rich; mocks for unknown imported domains return plausible no-match or randomized realistic-looking data.
Example: SixEleven's training team needs to onboard 8 new agents who've never used CRMown. The trainer clicks "Create sandbox" with Learner Mode on, names it "Agent cohort May 2026," and the clone spins up in ~60 seconds. They open the Trainees tab, enter each new agent's email + name (8 invites total — well under the 25/day cap), click Send. Each agent gets a magic-link signup email titled "You've been invited to learn CRMown in a training sandbox." They click, set a password, and land in a fully-featured but fully-isolated CRMown instance with Northstar's sample data. They spend a week running AI flows, building workflows, simulating customer follow-ups — every email/SMS goes to the intercepted-emails view (visible only to the trainer), no real spend on Hunter/Apollo/Daily, and any contacts they create stay in the sandbox forever. When the sandbox expires after 30 days, the trainer just deletes it. The 8 new agents had a real product experience without touching production.

Troubleshooting

Learner Mode toggle isn't visible in the Create Sandbox modal
You're running an older build. Brief 20a added the toggle on 2026-05-21.
Fix: Refresh the page (hard-refresh with Cmd+Shift+R / Ctrl+Shift+R). If still missing, the build hasn't reached your environment — contact the platform admin.
"Trainees" tab is missing on the sandbox detail page
The tab only appears for learner-mode sandboxes. Standard sandboxes show "Promotion history" instead.
Fix: If you wanted Learner Mode, you need to create a new sandbox with the toggle checked. There is no way to convert a standard sandbox into a learner sandbox after creation.
"A user with this email already exists" when inviting a trainee
The email is already associated with a CRMown account somewhere — your own org, another org, or a previous learner sandbox.
Fix: Use a different email for the trainee, or have them log in with their existing account. The system cannot create a sandbox-scoped duplicate of an email that already exists anywhere on the platform.
"Promotion disabled for Learner Mode sandboxes" message in the Changes tab
Working as intended — learner sandboxes are training-only and cannot push changes back to the parent org.
Fix: No action needed. To promote schema/workflow changes, create a STANDARD (non-learner) sandbox instead — the toggle off on the create modal.
"Too many invites in the last minute" 429 error
You hit the per-user rate limit (5 invites/min) on the invite-learner endpoint.
Fix: Wait 60 seconds and try again. If you're onboarding a large cohort, batch invites in waves of 5 per minute or 25 per day max.

Error messages

  • learner_promotion_blocked — You tried to promote changes from a learner-mode sandbox. Promotion is hard-blocked for these sandboxes by design.
  • not_learner_mode — You called the invite-learner endpoint on a sandbox that isn't in learner mode. Standard sandboxes use the regular team-invite flow.
  • sandbox_inactive — The sandbox has been deleted or expired. Trainees can no longer be invited.
  • user_exists — The email you're trying to invite is already associated with a CRMown account. Use a different email.

Plans

Sandboxes (including learner mode) are available on Max plan (1 concurrent sandbox) and Own license (3 concurrent sandboxes). Trainees inside a learner sandbox run on the Learner plan internally — that's the override that gives them all 9 suites visible regardless of the parent plan.

Related

  • Sandbox — Enterprise scenario sandbox (standard mode)
  • Intercepted emails — every outbound is captured here for all sandboxes
  • Boost Packs & Metered Overage — Boost packs are not purchasable inside learner-mode sandboxes by design

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