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@mattheworiordan mattheworiordan commented Jan 7, 2026

I created this PR following some conversations that went on today around the new push support in the CLI that I've created a pull request for and some issues I found around token and certificate based auth and the use of the sandbox endpoint field. Please read PDR-088 to see the decision that was made and please see the Push PR for the CLI which will give you some context as to why I'm proposing this small change. In addition, there's an update that needs to happen to one of the FAQ pages which I'm pasting in below. Note I am aware FAQs are being deprecated, but I'd rather update now and then whoever is driving that final migration is responsible for migrating that content.

This PR updatess APNs documentation to clarify that users must specify the sandbox/production endpoint for both authentication methods:

  • Token-based auth (.p8): Must specify endpoint (same key works for both)
  • Certificate-based auth (.p12): Must specify endpoint and match with certificate type (development cert = sandbox, distribution cert = production)

Changes:

  • Add "Why token-based authentication is recommended" section with comparison table and link to Apple docs
  • Update Control API docs to explain apnsUseSandboxEndpoint field
  • Remove references to auto-detection (not implemented)

Ref: PDR-088, EDU-1652

The proposed FAQ changes are:

Page: https://faqs.ably.com/for-apples-apns-what-is-the-sandbox-endpoint

When do I need to select the sandbox endpoint?

You must specify the sandbox endpoint setting for both token-based (.p8) and certificate-based (.p12) authentication.

Use sandbox when:

  • Testing with development builds from Xcode
  • Using a development APNs certificate

Use production when:

  • Distributing via App Store or TestFlight
  • Using a distribution APNs certificate

Important: For certificate-based authentication, you are responsible for matching the endpoint selection with your certificate type:

  • Development certificate → Select sandbox endpoint
  • Distribution certificate → Select production endpoint

For more information about APNs environments, see Apple's documentation on sending notification requests to APNs.

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@paddybyers
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I did notice the use of APNs (which is consistent with Apple's own usage) instead of APNS. But there are multiple uses of APNS elsewhere in the docs, so I raised #3086

Update APNs documentation to clarify that users must specify the
sandbox/production endpoint for both authentication methods:

- Token-based auth (.p8): Must specify endpoint (same key works for both)
- Certificate-based auth (.p12): Must specify endpoint and match with
  certificate type (development cert = sandbox, distribution cert = production)

Changes:
- Add "Why token-based authentication is recommended" section with
  comparison table and link to Apple docs
- Update Control API docs to explain apnsUseSandboxEndpoint field
- Remove references to auto-detection (not implemented)

Ref: PDR-088, EDU-1652
@m-hulbert m-hulbert force-pushed the improve-push-docs-for-apns branch from b9300e9 to a1ac961 Compare January 8, 2026 10:27
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Thanks @mattheworiordan - pushed some minor copy updates and I've also updated the FAQ in the interim.

@m-hulbert m-hulbert merged commit 90f4b92 into main Jan 8, 2026
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@m-hulbert m-hulbert deleted the improve-push-docs-for-apns branch January 8, 2026 10:35
@mattheworiordan
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Thanks @m-hulbert 👏

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4 participants