Client-side keys are exposed in the application and thus require additional security measures. The minimum requirement is to whitelist URLs that requests can be sent from. Client-side keys support two types of origins:
You can only register either web origins or mobile app identifiers for a single API key, not both. If you need both
types, you’ll need to create separate API keys.
For web applications, you need to add the domains that requests will be sent from. In development, you’ll need to add the local domain you test your application from. This is commonly http://localhost followed by a port number such as 3000, 5173, etc. For example, when developing with NextJS, the default origin you need to authorize is http://localhost:3000.The expected format for web origins is a full URL with protocol, such as https://www.yourdomain.com or http://localhost:3000.
For mobile applications, you need to add the bundle identifiers for iOS apps or package names for Android apps. The expected format is:
iOS: Bundle ID (e.g., com.company.appname)
Android: Package name (e.g., com.company.appname)
Mobile app identifiers can be arbitrarily spoofed by malicious actors, as the headers sent from mobile applications can be modified. Do not rely solely on mobile app identifiers for security. Consider implementing additional authentication mechanisms such as JWT authentication for sensitive operations.
When you create a production API key you will need to authorize your production domain or app identifiers to use the API key. You can add multiple authorized domains or app identifiers for an API key to make requests from. Type in the domain or app identifier that you want to authorize and then click the ”+ Add new origin” button.
Within the modal that opens, toggle the required scopes you want to enable. You may need to expand an accordion for the product area you’re working on to expose additional scope options.
For more information on API Key scopes visit the scopes page or the API Reference.
Finally, select the option to require a JWT if your application or use case requires it. Enabing this setting will require that users are authenticated to permit API requests.
The Wallets SDK requires this option to be enabled. It is optional for other
client side APIs. For more information on the options, refer to the JWT
Authentication section.
If you choose to enable the JWT Authentication for your client-side API key, there are additional configurations that must be made. You can choose between Crossmint authentication (easiest), third party auth providers such as Dynamic, Auth0, Stytch, Privy, Firebase, Kinde, or Supabase (medium), or integrating with custom solutions where you generate your own JWTs (advanced).You can find more information and guidance in the JWT Authentication section.
There are a few different approaches to using a client-side key. The most common option is passing it to the init function for a supported SDK. There are also some cases where you’ll pass the key as a header in a raw API call from custom code, similar to how a server-side key works.
The Headless Checkout is one example where you may be writing custom API calls from your application to create orders. In this case, you set the client-side API key as a header named X-API-KEY, much like you would when making a server-side API call.