# BRD-204 — Test against mock brands, not real ones

> Non-production submissions should use mock brands so fees are not charged and duplicate detection is not polluted.

- **Rule ID:** BRD-204
- **Layer:** Brand (`BRAND`)
- **Checks:** `brand.mock`
- **Severity:** LOW — Best practice. Worth fixing, rarely fatal on its own.
- **When it bites:** Gates approval — get this wrong and registration is refused
- **How it is detected:** Deterministic (settled in code from the submitted values)
- **Fix type:** Fix the field — a better value in the form clears it
- **Required by:** Twilio, Telnyx
- **Applies:** Applies to every 10DLC registration.
- **Canonical URL:** https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/brand/brd-204/

## Why this rule exists

A test registration is a real registration: it charges the fee, it consumes the identity fields, and it lands in the duplicate index — so the real submission that follows collides with the rehearsal. Mock brands exist precisely for this and cost nothing, but they are opt-in and easy to miss during an integration.

## How to fix it

Set the mock flag on every non-production submission, and use test rather than real identity values inside it. Done when no fee is charged and the real EIN, website and email have not been consumed by a rehearsal.

## Example of a compliant value

```text
mock: true on every integration and staging submission
```

## Notes

Absorbs OPS-350, which states the same testing practice and the constraints mock records carry — a mock brand does not verify and cannot carry live campaigns, so it proves the integration rather than the registration. Nothing in a submission says whether it is a rehearsal, so a real brand with no mock flag passes: the check reports only the shape it can see.