> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.pikopod.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Modes

> Put the served sandbox into a scenario's standing state, then run your own tests against it.

`pikopod scenario run` drives its own requests against a throwaway engine, so your application is never in the loop. A mode is the other half: it arms the scenario's standing conditions on the sandbox `pikopod up` is serving, and then your own tests, your own app, Postman, or plain curl meet the failure.

```bash theme={null}
pikopod mode set examplepay timeouts
```

```text theme={null}
mode: timeouts (from archetype or pack timeouts)
  armed   latency on GET /charges
point your app at the sandbox and run your own tests; clear it with `pikopod mode clear examplepay`
```

Now run your integration's test suite against `http://127.0.0.1:4600/examplepay`. Every `GET /charges` is delayed, and your timeout handling is what gets exercised.

## What a mode arms

The scenario's standing conditions: the faults it injects and the state it seeds. Its request steps are not run; those are yours to make. A scenario whose first step is a request has no standing state and is refused with the reason.

```bash theme={null}
pikopod mode set examplepay rate_limit_backoff
pikopod mode set examplepay declines --bind op=createCharge
pikopod mode set examplepay incident-14835fa32dfb
```

Packs work as well as archetypes, so a reproduced production incident can be the standing state your whole suite runs against.

## Global, and standing

A mode is global to the sandbox and stays until cleared. Two test suites running against one sandbox see each other's faults, and a fault with a `times` window counts down across both. Run one suite at a time against a given sandbox, or give each its own `pikopod up` on a different port.

```bash theme={null}
pikopod mode show examplepay
pikopod mode clear examplepay
```

`clear` leaves the standing state and clears every fault on the sandbox.

## From a coding agent

The same three operations are MCP tools: `set_mode`, `clear_mode`, and `get_requests` to see what the code under test actually sent. See [MCP tools](/reference/mcp-tools).

## When you want one fault, not a story

```bash theme={null}
pikopod chaos examplepay --kind error --status 503 --method POST --path /charges
```

See [Faults](/sandbox/faults).