Sandbox Tours: Overview, Setup & Best Practices

Build interactive, non-linear product sandboxes in minutes. No engineering, no implementation, freely navigable in any direction the end users desire. Buyers and sellers explore wherever you want in a controlled, personalized, reliable sandbox environment.

Sandbox Tours is a simulation experience type in Consensus. It uses our HTML Capture technology to record screens of your product directly from your browser, then stitches them together into a multi-path sandbox that buyers or sellers can navigate freely.

Unlike a Dynamic Tour HTML, which guides a viewer down a single scripted path with callouts, a Sandbox Tour lets the viewer click in any direction the screen offers. That makes it the right tool for:

• Live discovery demos: let the conversation drive where you click, instead of being locked into a fixed path.
• Buyer-led POCs and self-guided demos: give prospects a safe, fully personalized environment to explore on their own time, and replace the long, laborious setup costs of POCs.
• Reusable sandboxes: record once, then re-theme or translate the underlying data with a single AI prompt for any vertical, persona, or language. Think personalizing a sandbox to be healthcare or Spanish or Microsoft themed.

Because Sandbox Tours use the same HTML Capture engine as Dynamic Tours HTML, every captured page preserves the real look and feel of your web app: fully scrollable, with authentic hover states.

Your Sandbox Tours live in the Consensus web app under Library > Sandbox Tours, with their own Favorites and Archived tabs.

• Browser-based HTML capture with the Consensus Chrome extension
• A visual drag-and-drop editor on an infinite canvas
• AI data editing: rewrite all underlying data with one prompt (for example, personalizing a sandbox to be healthcare or Spanish or Microsoft themed)
• Image swap: replace any captured image with your own (make the sandbox feel like the prospect's own)
• Multi-session capture with color-coded pages, so you can see what came from where
• Free-form playback with on-screen guidance for end users

Most customers use Sandbox Tours and Dynamic Tours HTML, depending on the use case, with Simulations reserved for power users.

Step 1: Confirm your license. Sandbox Tours is included with Tours and Simulations licenses at no additional cost. If you don't have either, contact your Consensus account team to upgrade.

Step 2: Assign builder permissions. An admin assigns the Consensus Admin, Consensus Content Author, Content Manager, Public Link Manager, or Dynamic Tour Creator role to anyone on your team who needs to build sandboxes.

Step 3: Install the Consensus Chrome extension. If you haven't already, download the Consensus Chrome extension and pin it to your browser bar so it's close to your work.

Step 4: Sign in to the extension through the web app. Open the Consensus web app and sign in. The extension activates through your Consensus session: the icon turns orange when it's active, and grey means it's off.

You're ready to build.

Capture your sandbox

1. Open the product or web app you want to capture.
2. Click the Consensus Chrome extension and start a new Sandbox Tour capture.
3. Click through the flow naturally. Each click captures the next screen and links it to the previous one. Give each page about 3 seconds to finish loading before you click on, so it captures completely.
4. End the capture when you're done. Your sandbox automatically opens in the visual editor.

The extension captures full HTML, so every page is fully scrollable and preserves the real hover states from your app.

Edit your sandbox

The visual editor displays every captured page as a connected node on an infinite canvas, similar to building a Discovery Demo. You can always reconfigure which pages go where. From here, you can:

• Re-link pages to design any path you want a viewer to be able to take.
• Add new captures to an existing sandbox. New pages appear color-coded by capture session, so you can see at a glance which screens came from where.
• Personalize using the AI data editor: open the editor, type a prompt like "Change all data to be healthcare-themed in Spanish," and Consensus rewrites every text element across the entire sandbox in one pass.
• Swap images: replace any captured image with your own. Upload the prospect's logo, swap in industry-specific visuals, or remove anything that shouldn't be there.

Link pages together

Linking is what turns a set of captured pages into a sandbox people can explore. Here's how it works:

1. In the editor, click the element a viewer should be able to click, such as a button, menu item, or tab.
2. Choose Link this element to a page, then pick the page it should open.
3. If the same element appears on many pages (a sidebar menu, for example), turn on Apply to every page to link it everywhere it appears in one go.
4. Play the sandbox and click around to check every path goes where you expect.

Tip: rename your key captures (for example, "Dashboard" or "Settings") so they're easy to pick when you link.

What end users experience

When someone plays a Sandbox Tour, they can click any element on the screen that's been linked. If they click something that isn't linked, such as a menu item you haven't captured yet, the player highlights all the available paths for one second so they know where they can go next.

This means there's no dead end. Viewers always know what's clickable, and they can take whichever path the conversation or their curiosity leads them down.

What you can't edit

To preserve the integrity of the captured product, a few elements are locked. You can't edit charts, graphs, or hard-coded items like checkboxes, pencil edit icons, and placeholder text inside form fields. This matches Dynamic Tours HTML behavior.

Go to Library > Sandbox Tours to see every sandbox in your account. Use the Sandbox Tours, Favorites, and Archived tabs, Add Folder to organize them, and Filters or search to find one fast. Hover a sandbox to see its actions:

• The pencil opens it in the editor.
• The ⋯ menu lets you Rename, Move it to a folder, Copy URL, or Archive it.

Unlike Dynamic Tours, Sandbox Tours can't be added to a demo's content or to a DemoBoard playlist. Instead, you share them on their own link or open them from a CTA button inside a demo. Here's how to get one in front of people:

• Present it live: open the sandbox and drive it on your call. This is where Sandbox Tours shine.
• Send the link: in Library > Sandbox Tours, open the ⋯ menu and choose Copy URL, then paste the link into your email or message.
• Add it to a demo with a CTA button: copy the sandbox URL and add it as a Call to Action button in your demo. When viewers click the button, the sandbox opens right inside the DemoPlayer, so they never leave the demo. Share that demo on a DemoBoard or Public Link as usual, and the demo is tracked in Demolytics.

Capture the path that matters most first. Don't try to capture every screen in your product on the first pass. Start with the two or three flows your buyers ask about most. You can always add more capture sessions later. Focused sandboxes are also faster to link and easier for viewers to explore than very large ones.

Use AI data editing instead of re-recording. When a new vertical, persona, or language comes up, don't re-capture the sandbox. Open the AI data editor and rewrite the underlying data with one prompt. This is the single biggest time-saver in Sandbox Tours.

Personalize with image swap before high-stakes demos. Swap in the prospect's logo, replace generic dashboard charts with industry-specific visuals, and remove anything that doesn't match the conversation. A 30-second image swap turns a generic sandbox into something that looks like the prospect's tenant.

Use Sandbox Tours for live demos, Dynamic Tours for async storytelling. If you're presenting live and want to follow the conversation, use a Sandbox Tour. If you're sending a self-paced walkthrough where the story should unfold in a specific order, use a Dynamic Tour HTML. Both are the right tools, for different jobs.

Watch for unlinked elements during QA. Before sharing a Sandbox Tour externally, play it yourself and click around. Anywhere the path you expected isn't available, the editor flags the unlinked element so you can fix it before a buyer hits a dead end.

Plan how you'll share it. Decide up front whether the sandbox is for live calls or for sending. If you'll send it and want engagement data, add it to a demo with a CTA button so it opens in the DemoPlayer and the demo's DemoBoard or Public Link does the tracking.

• The extension freezes or won't start a Sandbox capture: log out of the extension, then sign back in through the Consensus web app. Still stuck? Clear your browser cache and cookies, or remove and reinstall the extension.
• A sandbox shows an error and won't open after capture: the capture didn't finish building, so it can't be edited or recovered. Archive it and capture again, giving each page about 3 seconds to load before you click on.
• Apply to every page only linked some pages: link the remaining pages by hand with Link this element to a page. Renaming your key captures makes the right destination easier to find. On very large sandboxes, this step can take a little while to run.
• Images don't show when you play the sandbox: open the sandbox in the editor once. The editor repairs missing images automatically.
• The editor toolbar covers part of the page: the toolbar can't be moved yet. Zoom your browser out (Ctrl or Cmd and minus) to see the whole page.
• Pages look different from your app (for example, fonts): contact Support with the sandbox name and a screenshot so we can take a look.

Can I add a Sandbox Tour to a demo or DemoBoard? Not as demo content or a playlist item. Instead, add the sandbox URL as a CTA button in your demo, and it opens right inside the DemoPlayer when viewers click it. You can also share it on its own with Copy URL.

Is Sandbox Tour engagement tracked? Not in Demolytics yet. Open it from a CTA button in a demo to track the demo that leads to it.

Can I add more pages later? Yes. Start a new capture session for the same sandbox, and the new pages appear color-coded on the canvas. (This is one way Sandbox Tours differ from Dynamic Tours.)

Can I delete a Sandbox Tour? No, Sandbox Tours can only be archived. You'll find them in the Archived tab.

Where did my sandboxes go? They moved from the ReachSuite portal into the Consensus web app, under Library > Sandbox Tours. Old ReachSuite links redirect automatically.

Do I need a separate license? No. Sandbox Tours is included with Tours and Simulations licenses at no additional cost.

Getting Started with Consensus Tours: Choosing Your Tour Type · Capturing Tours with the Chrome Extension · Tours Access, Login & Permissions · How to Create Discovery Demos