Authentication

All requests to the Adstract API must include a valid API key. The key is passed as a request header — there is no cookie-based or OAuth-based authentication flow.

Header

X-Adstract-API-Key: your-api-key

Include this header on every request:

JavaScript

const response = await fetch("https://api.adstract.ai/api/ad-injection/start/", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "X-Adstract-API-Key": "your-api-key",
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({ ... }),
});

Python

import httpx

response = httpx.post(
    "https://api.adstract.ai/api/ad-injection/start/",
    headers={
        "X-Adstract-API-Key": "your-api-key",
        "Content-Type": "application/json",
    },
    json={ ... },
)

cURL

curl https://api.adstract.ai/api/ad-injection/start/ \
  -H "X-Adstract-API-Key: your-api-key" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{...}'

Key types

Adstract issues two types of API key, each for a different stage of your integration lifecycle.

Key type	When to use	Traffic paid
Sandbox	During development and verification	No
Billing	After verification is approved	Yes

You must complete the publisher verification process before a Billing key becomes available.

Getting a Sandbox key

1. Sign up as a Publisher at adstract.ai.
2. Create a platform and ensure it is active.
3. Navigate to API Keys and create a Sandbox key.

See Sandbox Key for the full walkthrough.

Getting a Billing key

After your account is verified:

1. Navigate to API Keys.
2. Create a Billing key.
3. Replace the X-Adstract-API-Key value in your requests.

See Billing Key for the full walkthrough.

Authentication failures

If authentication fails, the exact HTTP status code depends on the endpoint and the specific failure condition.

See:

• Enhancement Status Codes
• Acknowledgment Status Codes

Next steps

• Sandbox Key — create your first API key.
• Ad Injection — start making requests.