API keys let your code and CI ask questions and read results. For AI assistants like Claude or ChatGPT, connect with OAuth instead: it needs no key.

Making a key

  1. Go to Developers in the portal and choose Create key.
  2. Name it after where it will be used, for example "CI" or "pricing bot".
  3. Choose its scopes and a daily spend cap.
  4. Confirm it's you. The key starts fh_live_ and is shown once: copy it into your secret store straight away.

We store only a hash of the key, so we can't show it again. If you lose it, rotate it.

Scopes

  • questions:read: results and lists.
  • questions:write: estimate, ask, cancel, share, uploads.
  • templates:read: fixed-price templates.
  • account:read: balance and ledger.

Give each key only what it needs.

Rotating and revoking

Rotate makes a new secret for the same key and settings; the old secret stops working. Revoke stops the key for good. Both take effect within a second.

Keep keys secret

Keys are for servers. Requests with a key from a web browser are refused, so a key can't be lifted from a web page. Never commit keys to a repository.

See the developer docs for authentication, errors and rate limits.