# Authentication

To authenticate with the API, do the following:

1. Go to SkySQL API Key management page: <https://app.skysql.com/user-profile/api-keys> and generate an API key
2. Export the value from the token field to an environment variable $API\_KEY
3. Use it on subsequent request, e.g:

   ```
    curl --request GET 'https://api.skysql.com/provisioning/v1/services' \\
    --header "X-API-Key: $API_KEY"
   ```