> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.uncensored.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Authentication

> Authenticate API requests with an Uncensored AI API key.

# Authentication

All API requests require an API key.

```text theme={null}
x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY
```

API keys can be created and managed through the [Developer Dashboard](https://uncensored.com/developer).

## Request headers

| Header                           | Required              | Description                                                    |
| -------------------------------- | --------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `x-api-key: <key>`               | Yes                   | API key authentication.                                        |
| `Content-Type: application/json` | Yes, on JSON requests | Standard JSON request body.                                    |
| `Idempotency-Key: <string>`      | No                    | Safely retry write requests without duplicate jobs or charges. |

## Response headers

Every response includes rate-limit metadata.

| Header                           | Description                                                     |
| -------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `x-ratelimit-limit-requests`     | Your current requests-per-minute ceiling.                       |
| `x-ratelimit-remaining-requests` | Requests remaining in the current 60-second window.             |
| `x-ratelimit-reset-requests`     | ISO 8601 UTC timestamp when the window resets.                  |
| `retry-after`                    | Returned on `429` responses; seconds to wait before retrying.   |
| `Idempotent-Replay: true`        | Returned when a response was served from the idempotency cache. |

## Idempotency

For `POST`, `PUT`, `PATCH`, and `DELETE` requests, pass an `Idempotency-Key` header to safely retry requests.

```text theme={null}
Idempotency-Key: image-request-2026-05-09-001
```

Idempotency behavior:

| Case                                            | Result                                                        |
| ----------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------- |
| First request with a new key                    | Processed normally and cached for 24 hours.                   |
| Retry with same key and same body               | Original response is replayed with `Idempotent-Replay: true`. |
| Retry with same key and different body          | Returns `422 idempotency_key_reuse`.                          |
| Concurrent retry while original is processing   | Returns `409 idempotency_key_in_flight` and `Retry-After: 2`. |
| Streaming response                              | Executes normally but is not cached.                          |
| Server error or response body larger than 1 MiB | Not cached; retries re-execute the request.                   |

Keys must be 1-255 characters. Allowed characters are letters, digits, `_`, `-`, `.`, `/`, and `:`.