# API keys

URL: https://testmode.ai/docs/api-keys/

> Create a Testmode project API key for CI pipelines and AI agents, choose its expiry, store it as a secret, and revoke it. What a key can do, its rate limit and how it follows its creator's role.

A **project API key** lets a CI pipeline or an AI agent use Testmode's API for one project. Keys start with `tmk_`.

## Create a key

1. Open **Settings** > **API & CI** and click **Create API key**.

2. Give it a name that says where it is used, such as `GitHub Actions` or `Nightly Jenkins`.

3. Choose when it expires: 30 days, 90 days, 1 year or never. The default is 90 days.

4. Click **Create key**, and copy the key.

[Screenshot: Create API key dialog with the name GitHub Actions and the expiry choice. Caption: Name a key after where it is used.]

**Caution: The key is shown once**

Testmode stores only a fingerprint of the key, so it can't show it again. Copy it straight into your CI's secret store, such as a GitHub repository secret named `TESTMODE_API_KEY`. Never commit it to your repository.

Creating and revoking keys needs the Editor role or above. Every project member sees the list: each key's name, its prefix (such as `tmk_Yz3AP4I8…`), when it was created and last used, and when it expires.

## Use a key

Send it in the `Authorization` header:

```bash
curl https://api.testmode.ai/v1/project \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TESTMODE_API_KEY"
```

`X-Api-Key: tmk_…` works too. The GitHub Action and the MCP snippets on **API & CI** show where to put it.

## What a key can do

A key works in its own project only, and acts for the member who created it, with less than that member may do: it reads the project's environments, test plans, test cases and runs, and starts runs. It can't read credentials or variable values, change tests, or create other keys.

## Rate limit

A key allows **60 requests a minute**, shared by every pipeline and agent that uses it. A waiting CI job polls every 15 seconds, so give pipelines that run many jobs at once their own keys. Over the limit, the API answers 429 with a `Retry-After` header.

## A key follows its creator

A key works only while the member who created it is an **Editor, Admin or Owner** of the organization. When that member is removed or made a Viewer, their keys stop working for good; rejoining doesn't bring them back. Create keys for pipelines as someone who will stay, and replace them when people leave.

## Revoke a key

Click the trash icon on the key and confirm. It stops working at once and can't be restored. To replace a key without breaking CI, create the new key, update your CI secret, then revoke the old one.

## Related

- [Run tests from GitHub Actions and other CI](https://testmode.ai/docs/github-action/): Use the key in a pipeline.
- [REST API reference](https://testmode.ai/docs/rest-api/): Every endpoint the key unlocks.
- [Connect an AI agent over MCP](https://testmode.ai/docs/mcp-server/): Use the key, or sign in, from an AI app.