API Access and API keys

Modified on July 26, 2024

An API Key is used to grant programmatic access to Otter, and allows scripts, tools, and other integrations to automate and interact with the system.

Creating and Managing API Keys

To create or manage API Keys, go to Administration > API Keys and Access Logs. You will be presented with a list of API Keys in the system, as well as the ability to edit, delete, and create new ones.

The most important property of an API Key is the Key. This is an arbitrary string that acts like a password, so make sure to treat it like one. You can set the key value to anything you'd like, or let Otter auto-generate a value for you.

The Description field is used for a human-friendly name, and can be used to describe what the key is used for.

API Key Permissions

A key can only be used for the API endpoints that you specify:

• Native API
• Job orchestration (Viewing and/or Triggering)
• Infrastructure management (Viewing and/or Updating
• Variables Management API
• Configuration Management API

Logging Options

You can configure an API key to log both the request and the response body of each request. While this is important for debugging purposes, if you have a lot of large requests, there will be a nontrivial overhead and amount of diskspace required.

Using API Keys

An API key may be passed to any endpoint (except Feed API endpoints - see below) in one of four ways, depending on the content type of the expected request:

• Request header (x-Apikey) - all content types
• Querystring value (key) - all content types
• Form value (key) - only applications/x-www-form-urlencoded content type
• JSON property (API_Key) on root object - only application/json content type