User Authentication

🔐 Authentication: Using `x-api-key`

All Networked.co APIs are secured via a required authorization header called x-api-key.

📌 Overview

The x-api-key is a secure token that uniquely identifies a community owner on the platform. It must be included in the request headers for every API call made to backend services.

🔑 How `x-api-key` Works

Name	Type	Required	Description
x-api-key	String	✅ Yes	API key provided by the Networked Team . Used for authenticating requests.

📘 Important Details

Manually Issued by Networked Team
The x-api-key is manually generated and provided by Customer Executives at Networked.co. Communities cannot generate this key themselves.

Owner-Level Access Only
Requests made using the x-api-key are treated as being from the Community Owner (Admin). Ensure the Owner account has the necessary privileges — otherwise, you may encounter authorization errors.

Required for All API Calls
The x-api-key is mandatory for every API request. Any request sent without this key will result in an Unauthorized (401) error.

👉 Confidential and Secret Key
Treat your x-api-key as highly confidential. If you believe the key has been exposed, immediately contact a Networked Customer Executive. They can disable the compromised key and issue a new one.

👉 Loss of Secrecy = No Support
If the key is misused or leaked, Networked cannot provide support for any resulting unauthorized access or data breaches. Responsibility lies with the community to maintain key secrecy.

🚦 Rate Limiting

To ensure fair usage and optimal performance, external API requests are subject to rate limits.

⏱️ Request Limits

Time Window	Maximum Requests
1 Minute	10 requests
10 Minutes	50 requests
60 Minutes	120 requests

If the rate limit is exceeded, the API will respond with the following error:

❌ Rate Limit Error Response

Status Code: 429 Too Many Requests

Response Body:

{
  "error": true,
  "message": "Too Many Requests"
}

🔁 Recommendations

Implement retry logic .

Avoid making unnecessary repeated calls within a short span.

🔐 Authentication: Using x-api-key#

📌 Overview#

🔑 How x-api-key Works#

📘 Important Details#

🚦 Rate Limiting#

⏱️ Request Limits#

❌ Rate Limit Error Response#

🔁 Recommendations#