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API Keys

API keys are how your services authenticate to Observatory. This is what you pass to the Python SDK so it can report telemetry and read control state.

What a key can (and can't) do​

A key is scoped to telemetry write and control read only. It can report events and check whether a consumer should pause/throttle/drain, but it can't touch anything else in your organization: it has no access to the dashboard, members, billing, or settings. Treat it like a password anyway. Anyone with it can report events as if they were your service.

Creating a key​

  1. 1
    Open API Keys
    Go to Organization settings → API Keys.
  2. 2
    Click New API key
    Give it a name that identifies what will use it, e.g. "orders-worker-prod".
  3. 3
    Choose an expiration
    Never, 30 days, 90 days, or 1 year.
  4. 4
    Copy the secret
    It's shown exactly once, in full. If you lose it, you'll need to rotate the key and update wherever it's used.

Managing existing keys​

The API Keys table shows each key's name, prefix (enough to identify it without exposing the secret), creation date, and expiration. From here you can rotate a key's secret (issues a new secret, same key), disable it temporarily without deleting it, or delete it outright.