Velqa API authentication — sk-... key and Bearer header
Every request to the Velqa API authenticates with an API key of the form sk-..., passed in the Authorization: Bearer HTTP header. That's the only secret the API needs: your account (email/OAuth) is only for the dashboard and billing.
Base URL
https://api.velqa.dev/v1The Anthropic-compatible endpoint is https://api.velqa.dev/v1/messages (see Anthropic API).
The auth header
Every request must include your key:
Authorization: Bearer sk-...Example with curl:
curl https://api.velqa.dev/v1/chat/completions \
-H "Authorization: Bearer sk-..." \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"model":"kimi-k2.6","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"Hello"}]}'With the OpenAI SDK, the key is passed as the api_key argument:
from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(base_url="https://api.velqa.dev/v1", api_key="sk-...")Create a key
- Sign up at velqa.dev (email/password or Google/GitHub).
- Verify your email — required before you can create a key or top up.
- In the dashboard, under API Keys, click "New key".
- Copy the key: it is shown only once. Store it in a secrets manager or an environment variable.
Best practices
- Never commit a key to a Git repository. Use an environment variable (
VELQA_API_KEY) or a.envfile ignored by Git. - Use multiple keys: one per machine, project or environment, so you can revoke one without breaking the rest.
- Rotate your keys regularly and revoke any exposed key immediately from the dashboard.
export VELQA_API_KEY="sk-..."curl https://api.velqa.dev/v1/chat/completions \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $VELQA_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"model":"glm-4.7-flash","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"ping"}]}'Key scoping
A Velqa key can be restricted when you create it: an allow-list of models, a maximum budget, and rate limits (RPM / TPM). Handy for giving a key to an app or a teammate without exposing your whole balance or every model. Details and setup: API Keys.