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Opt-in direct API-key auth

AIFactory is OAuth-only by default. Any ANTHROPIC_API_KEY present in the environment is scrubbed from agents so it can never silently bill the Anthropic API. Operators whose intended billing model is a direct API key (no Claude subscription) opt in with a single flag.

This is a safety default, not a limitation: on a shared or multi-tenant host, a stray key in the environment should never quietly run up an API bill.

The two modes​

OAuth (default, safe)​

  • Billing is tied to a Claude subscription via an OAuth token.
  • A stray ANTHROPIC_API_KEY is blanked before agents run — it is excluded from the SDK subprocess environment.
  • Safe for shared and multi-tenant deployments.

Direct API key (opt-in)​

  • Billing is tied to an Anthropic API account, separate from any subscription.
  • Useful for: organizations on an API-only agreement, per-team cost-center chargeback with a direct key, or headless deployments with no interactive login.
  • The key is accepted as an auth token and passed through to agents.

Enabling it​

Set the flag on the web server (.env or pod env) alongside the key:

AIFACTORY_ALLOW_API_KEY=1
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...

Accepted truthy values: 1, true, yes, on.

With the flag on:

  1. OAuth remains the primary auth — the login flow is unchanged.
  2. If ANTHROPIC_API_KEY is set, it is accepted as a fallback auth token.
  3. The key is passed through to the agent SDK environment instead of being blanked.

With the flag off or unset (the default):

  1. OAuth is the only auth.
  2. ANTHROPIC_API_KEY is scrubbed from the agent environment.
  3. Any attempt to use a stray key in an agent fails safely.

How it works​

A single gate — core.auth.api_key_auth_enabled() — decides whether the key is accepted as a token and whether it is passed through to agents. By default ANTHROPIC_API_KEY is excluded from the SDK passthrough list and only added back dynamically when the flag is set.

See also​