Authentication

API requests act on behalf of a CEDAR account and follow that account's permissions. Log in to CEDAR, open Profile from the person menu, and copy the API key shown there. For a long-running project integration, use a dedicated project account rather than tying the workflow to one person's account.

The key is sent in the Authorization header:

Authorization: apiKey <YOUR_API_KEY>

The examples in this section use two shell variables so the key and server address do not have to be repeated:

export CEDAR_API_KEY="<YOUR_API_KEY>"
export CEDAR_API="https://resource.metadatacenter.org"

Treat the API key as a password. Do not place it in source code or commit it to a repository.