QUESTION

Is there a way to set a detection to a "test" stage (instead of enable or disable), where it matches on production logs, but the alerts can be configured to be sent to a different destination?

ANSWER

Yes. Depending on whether you use the developer workflow or work straight out of the Panther Console, you can use destination overrides.
 

TEST_MODE = True
TEST_DESTINATIONS = ["test alert destination"] # Replace with the name or UUID of your test destination

def rule(event):
    # Replace with your rule logic
    return True

def destinations(event):
    if TEST_MODE:
        return TEST_DESTINATIONS

While you have TEST_MODE set to True, your rule will send any alerts to the destinations listed in TEST_DESTINATIONS. When you’re ready to go to production, you can either set TEST_MODE to False or simply remove the TEST_MODE logic from the destinations function if you don’t plan to use it again.

For more information on the destinations function, check out Panther's Detections documentation.