API keys

Test and live modes

Every API key is in either test or live mode. Test mode has its own marketplace, balance, and webhook secret; nothing crosses over.

Free and premium tiers

Every key is also either free or premium. Free keys call the marketplace and action endpoints (models, listings, payouts, webhooks). Premium keys additionally unlock Node Data's own paid inference API at /v1/chat/completions (node-reason-70b, node-fast-8b), metered per token.

A live premium key is created inactive. Enter your card in the inline checkout to complete the one-time $20 purchase, which activates it; until then the key returns 402 payment_required. If you dismiss the card form, reopen it any time with Complete payment next to the key on the dashboard. Premium keys always carry the inference:run scope.

Create a key

Generate keys at Dashboard → API keys. Each key has a name, mode, scope set, and optional expiry. The secret is shown once at creation — copy it immediately and store it in a secrets manager.

Try it right away by calling /v1/me:

curl https://api.nodedata.dev/v1/me \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer nd_test_..."

Restricted (scoped) keys

Default keys can perform any action your account can. Restricted keys narrow that surface. Use them for CI, edge devices, and any environment that does not need full account access.

node-data keys create \
  --name "ci-deploys" \
  --mode live \
  --scope "models:read" \
  --scope "models:upload" \
  --expires 90d

Available scopes

• models:read — list and download licensed models
• models:upload — create and update models you own
• datasets:read / datasets:upload
• listings:read / listings:write
• payouts:read — read-only access to revenue
• deploy:write — create and update deployments
• webhooks:write — configure webhook endpoints
• inference:run — call the paid inference API (premium keys only)

Rotation

Rotate keys at least every 90 days, immediately after a teammate offboards, or any time a key is suspected to be compromised. The safe pattern is to overlap: create the new key, deploy it, then revoke the old one.

# Issue a new key and overlap-rotate
new_key = node.keys.create(name="ci-deploys-2026q3", mode="live")

# Deploy new key to production secrets
# ...

node.keys.revoke("nd_live_oldkey1234")

Storing keys

• Local dev: .env.local, never .env tracked in git
• CI: secrets manager (GitHub Actions secrets, Vercel env, AWS Secrets Manager)
• Edge devices: write-once secrets in a TPM, then reference by handle