Get an API key

When to use this page

Use this page when onboarding a new customer, workspace, or agent runtime.

Customer flow

1. Ask your Quotaflow admin for a production qf_... API key.
2. Confirm which protocol surface your client uses: OpenAI-compatible, Anthropic-compatible, or Gemini-compatible.
3. Store the key as QUOTAFLOW_API_KEY or your platform's equivalent secret.
4. Run the model list smoke test.
5. Run one small non-streaming request.
6. Switch your client or agent to the Quotaflow base URL.

Admin flow

1. Create or select a customer organization and project.
2. Set the organization direct balance or the project budget, depending on how the account is structured.
3. Create the default all-model production key, unless the customer needs a product-scoped key for accounting or security.
4. Enable the product access required by the customer.
5. Enable agent-compatible payload handling when the key is intended for coding agents.
6. Send the customer the key through a secure channel.

Balance semantics

A key is a credential. It does not normally own its own balance. Usage spends from the organization or project shared balance and is reported by key, model, product, and project. If you receive multiple product-scoped keys, treat them as access boundaries over the same shared balance unless your contract explicitly says otherwise.

Partner-billed customer organizations can have a sponsor-funded project budget. That budget is pre-allocated by the partner and usage cannot exceed the allocation. The customer organization may also add its own organization-direct funds; those funds are tracked separately and do not increase or draw down the partner-funded allocation. A project key uses the billing allocation assigned to that key, so Quotaflow does not silently fall back from sponsor-funded budget to organization-direct funds or vice versa.

Smoke test

curl https://api.quotaflow.ai/openai/v1/models \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $QUOTAFLOW_API_KEY"

A 200 response confirms the key is recognized.

Environment separation

Use production keys only with production endpoints. Old development keys are not guaranteed to work on production endpoints unless a migration was explicitly planned.