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Management API Keys allow you to manage API Keys at the Team level, which includes all API Keys for the Environments associated with your team. Create and manage these team-scoped Management API Keys through the Honeycomb UI. We require you to manually create a Management API Key. When you create a Management API Key, you assign it a set of scopes, which determine what actions the API Key can perform in the associated Team. Use Management API Keys to authorize the Key Management API. Refer to the Key Management API documentation for details. Any programmatic request sent to Honeycomb must use an API Key, but most Honeycomb APIs operate at the Environment level and require a Configuration Key for resource management. To learn more about using API Keys, visit Best Practices for API Keys.

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Find Management API Keys

To find your existing Management API Keys:
  1. Log in to the Honeycomb UI.
  2. From the navigation bar, select Account, and then Team Settings.
  3. Select the API Keys view.
Each key’s description, if it has one, appears below the key’s name in smaller text. The list shows up to two lines of the description; open the key to read all of it. To find a key, enter part of its name, description, or Key ID in the search box.

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Create Management API Key

To create a Management API Key, you must be a Team Owner.
For security reasons, you can access the secret portion of your Management API Key only while creating it. You may be able to use the information you retrieve in this section to identify a key or its settings, so you can retrieve it from the safe location in which you previously stored it.
To create your API Key:
  1. Log in to the Honeycomb UI.
  2. From the navigation bar, select Account, and then Team Settings.
  3. Select the API Keys view.
  4. Select Create Management API Key.
  5. In the Create management API key dialog, enter the details for your API Key:
    Screenshot of the Create management API key dialog. The optional Description field shows the placeholder text: e.g. Used by the checkout service in prod. Rotate in AWS Secrets Manager.
    Choose permissions carefully; they are permanent. To change them, you must delete the API Key and create a new one.
  6. Select Create.
  7. Copy your Key Secret and save it to a secure location. Honeycomb returns it only upon creation.
    Store your API keys securely and never check them into version control systems, such as Git.
  8. Select Done.
  9. Optionally, copy your Key ID. You will need both your Key ID and Key Secret to authenticate requests to the API. Your Key ID is always available after creation, but your Key Secret is not.
Your new API Key appears in the list of keys. To learn how to use your new key, visit API Documentation: Authentication.

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Describe Management Keys

A description is an optional note about a key, such as where it is used or how to rotate it. For example: Used by the checkout service in prod. Rotate in AWS Secrets Manager. Descriptions help your team identify a key without searching code to find where it is used. To learn how descriptions fit into key management, visit Best Practices for API Keys.
A description is not secret. Honeycomb shows it wherever it shows the key’s name, to anyone who can see the key. Do not put API keys, tokens, passwords, or other secrets in a description.
A description can contain up to 2,000 characters. The Description (optional) field stops accepting input at that limit.
To add, edit, or clear a description, you must be a Team Owner. Team members who are not Team Owners can read a key’s description in the list and when they open the key.
To add, edit, or clear the description of a Management Key:
  1. Log in to the Honeycomb UI.
  2. From the navigation bar, select Account, and then Team Settings.
  3. Select the API Keys view.
  4. In the list, locate the Management Key that you want to change, and select its Edit (pencil) icon.
  5. In the Description (optional) field, enter the new description. To clear the description, delete all of its text.
  6. Select Save.
Changing a key’s name or whether it is enabled does not change its description. The Key Management API does not manage Management Keys, so you can set their descriptions only in the Honeycomb UI.

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Disable Management Keys

To disable a Management Key, you must be a Team Owner.
To disable your Management Key:
  1. Log in to the Honeycomb UI.
  2. From the navigation bar, select Account, and then Team Settings.
  3. Select the API Keys view.
  4. In the list, locate the Management Key that you want to disable, and select its Edit (pencil) icon.
  5. Turn off the Enabled toggle.
  6. Select Save.
Your Management Key remains in the list, and its Status changes to Disabled. It may take several minutes for the change to go into effect.

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Delete Management Keys

Management Key deletion is permanent, so make sure you really want to delete your Management Key before doing so.To delete a Management Key, you must be a Team Owner.
To delete your Management Key:
  1. Log in to the Honeycomb UI.
  2. From the navigation bar, select Account, and then Team Settings.
  3. Select the API Keys view.
  4. In the list, locate the Management Key that you want to delete, and select its Delete (trash) icon.
  5. In the Delete management API key? dialog, type the name of the Management Key, which appears above the field.
  6. Select Delete.
Your Management Key will no longer appear in the list, but it may take several minutes for the process to complete.

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Management Key Scopes

You can control the actions that a Management API Key may perform in your Team at a more granular level.
You cannot change scopes assigned to a Management Key after the key has been created. Management Keys can be deleted.

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API Keys