Harbor Credit Union is a simulated institution

This institution routes to the sandbox and nowhere else, in both environments. There is no upstream provider to configure and no real account to reach — the data is generated deterministically from the item id, so the same connection always produces the same accounts, balances, and history.

The browser receives only the link_token, which expires in thirty minutes. Link runs the institution’s auth step, any MFA challenge, account selection, and the consent screen, then hands back a public_token. Exchange it once on your server with fc.link.exchangeToken and store the resulting access_token encrypted. Full walkthrough in the quickstart.

logo_url is a path on this origin rather than a third-party CDN, so rendering the mark never tells anyone else which institution your user is looking at. primary_color and monogram are the fallback tile for clients that would rather not load an image at all. Field by field in the institutions reference.

In the sandbox this institution connects today. Link shows a credential form; user_good / pass_good succeeds, user_mfa / pass_good adds a challenge whose code is 1234, and user_locked produces an item error. Either way the item comes back with 24 months of deterministic history — enough to build and demo the whole integration before any provider agreement exists. Sandbox reference.