# API key

The secret an agent sends with each call to a product's API. Without one, most APIs answer nothing useful.

Also called access token, first key.

Source: https://agentdrives.com/glossary/api-key · as data: https://agentdrives.com/glossary/api-key.json · licence CC BY 4.0

## In our drives

Every drive tries to get the first key the way an agent would. A key that can only be made by clicking through a web dashboard is one of the walls.

Sign-up or key only in a browser: https://agentdrives.com/walls/browser-only-sign-up

## Products where the sign-up or the first key needed a browser

2 of the 151 products we drove.

- [Copper](https://agentdrives.com/tools/copper.md?via=md): L1 Needs a person
- [UploadThing](https://agentdrives.com/tools/uploadthing.md?via=md): L1 Needs a person

## Related terms

- [Gets in on its own](https://agentdrives.com/glossary/gets-in-on-its-own.md): An agent has working access with no person helping: its own sign-up, a key over the API, pay per call or no key at all.
- [Wall](https://agentdrives.com/glossary/wall.md): Anything that stops an AI agent at a product's door: a bot check, a phone number at sign-up, a card before first use, a sign-up that only works in a browser.
- [CLI](https://agentdrives.com/glossary/cli.md): A product's command-line tool. An agent working in a terminal often signs in and works through it instead of the web app.
- [MCP](https://agentdrives.com/glossary/mcp.md): Model Context Protocol: an open standard for connecting AI agents to a product's tools and data. A product runs an MCP server, and an agent calls its tools.

Every term: https://agentdrives.com/glossary.md