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. Fund the organization's balance. A project budget is an optional reporting target, not a funding account.
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, not a wallet. Every project and key in a customer organization spends from that organization's single balance. Usage is still reported by key, model, product, and project. A project budget is a reporting target and does not reserve funds or block requests.

When a partner funds a customer, the funding is recorded as an auditable credit to the customer organization's balance before use. Partner relationships, projects, and keys do not become separate wallets. Only insufficient organization balance blocks a funded request; optional project targets remain reporting-only.

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.