Authentication
Authenticate to the Clous API with a Bearer key, and understand the difference between the free sandbox and paid keys.
Authentication
Every request to the Clous API is authenticated with an API key passed as a Bearer
token in the Authorization header.
curl -s "https://api.clous.ai/v1/advisers" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer clous_live_..."Keys are created and managed from your dashboard. Treat your key like a password: it carries your account's credit balance and access. Never embed it in client-side code or commit it to source control — call Clous from a server or a trusted backend.
Key format
clous_live_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxAll keys use the clous_live_ prefix. Whether a key is in evaluation (sandbox) or
on a paid plan is determined by the plan attached to your account, not by a
different key prefix.
Sandbox vs paid
| Free Sandbox | Paid plans | |
|---|---|---|
| Credits | 100 (one-time, evaluation only) | 7,500 → 1.5M depending on plan |
| Endpoints | Same live endpoints | Same live endpoints |
| Intended use | Evaluation and prototyping | Production workloads |
| Overage | Not available | Metered per pricing |
The Free Sandbox is for evaluating the API. It calls exactly the same live endpoints as paid plans — there is no separate sandbox host or fixture data — but is capped at 100 credits and is not intended for production traffic. Upgrade to a paid plan from the dashboard when you're ready to ship. See Credits & Pricing for plans and credit costs.
Missing or invalid keys
Requests without a valid key are rejected. When your credit balance is exhausted,
calls stop rather than silently incurring charges — see
Pagination, Errors & Rate limits for the
rate_limited and related error codes.
Rotate a key immediately from the dashboard if you suspect it has leaked.