API Keys

Authenticate your endpoint to Iroh Services to push metrics and connectivity reports

API keys authenticate your endpoint to Iroh Services. Iroh itself is permissionless — connections between two endpoints never need authorization — but the resources in your project belong to you. Your API key is what lets an endpoint push data into your project and connect to your project’s dedicated relays.

What API keys authorize

API keys are required for:

• Uploading metrics from endpoints to your project
• Sending network diagnostics reports from endpoints to your project
• Connecting to your project’s dedicated relays, which require authentication by default

API keys are not required for:

• Connecting through the public relays
• NAT traversal connections to other iroh endpoints

Get an API key

After signing in, create a new project. This is your sandbox for all endpoints, the control center where you manage relays, metrics, and networks.

Then navigate to your project’s Settings → API Keys tab and click Create API Key. The key is shown once on creation, so copy it somewhere safe.

The environment variable used by the Rust client is IROH_SERVICES_API_SECRET (named for legacy reasons; same thing as your API key).

Use it in your app

Pass the key when building your iroh_services::Client:

use iroh_services::Client;

let client = Client::builder(&endpoint)
    .api_secret_from_str("YOUR_API_KEY")?
    .build()
    .await?;

In production, load the key from a config file or environment variable instead of hardcoding it.

For a full walkthrough (creating an endpoint, naming it, and verifying it on the dashboard) see the Iroh Services quickstart.

What’s next

Today, API keys gate metrics and net diagnostics uploads and access to your dedicated relays. Future versions may support per-resource permissions and time-based access control. If your use case needs that today, contact us.