What are the guidelines around the use of Beta APIs in a production environment?

[sushantkulkarni]

Since we know Beta APIs could change at any time, ideally you’d not want to use them if it is a production environment. But if say you had to for some reason, use an API that isn’t available in V3 (or the latest version available when you read this) in a production environment, can you still use it, or is there a safety check that prevents the use of Beta APIs in production?

Is there a way to know when a Beta API might change fundamentally, say in URL, request body or response body? Are there any notifications sent out before Beta APIs change, or is that only reserved for official versions of the REST APIs?

[colin_mckibben]

There usually aren’t any checks to prevent users from using beta APIs in a prod tenant. There is one beta API that I am aware of that is locked to just sandbox tenants (I forget which one, but it’s not a common one). It’s worth noting that even the IDN UI utilizes beta APIs in certain areas.

The general advice still holds true. Beta can change with little to no notice, and is not ideal for use in a critical production environment. In practice, I rarely see beta APIs change without notice. If you are comfortable with these facts, then there is nothing stopping you from using them in prod.