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API Keys

Most renters never need this page. Use it when:

  • You want to drive Lium from the CLI (lium ...).
  • You want an AI agent (Claude, Cursor, your own) to deploy and manage pods on your behalf via the API or MCP server.
  • You're integrating Lium into a CI pipeline, a Slack bot, or your own tool.

If you're just here to rent a GPU and SSH in, the dashboard at lium.io is the friendlier path — see Quickstart.

What an API key does​

An API key authenticates HTTP requests to https://lium.io/api/... as you. Anyone with the key can:

  • Deploy pods, attach volumes, start backups — and be billed to your account.
  • Read your pod list, backup history, and account balance.
  • Delete things. The API has no separate "read-only" scope yet.

Treat the key like a password. Never paste it into a public repo, an issue tracker, a screenshot, or a non-CVM pod.

Generate a key​

  1. Sidebar → Access (key icon).
  2. Click the API Keys tab.
  3. ADD NEW +, give the key a Name (something like cli-laptop, ci-deploy-bot, claude-agent), ADD.
  4. The full key shows once in a copy-to-clipboard chip. Copy it now — Lium only stores a hashed version, so you can't view it again.

Access page → API Keys tab

The list view shows each key's Name, masked Key prefix, Active flag, Last used, Expires at, and Date created.

Use the key​

Pass the key in the X-API-Key header on every request:

export LIUM_API_KEY=sk_yjujqGP...full-key

curl https://lium.io/api/pods \
  -H "X-API-Key: $LIUM_API_KEY"

For the CLI:

pip install lium.io                   # or: curl https://lium.io/install.sh | sh
lium login --api-key $LIUM_API_KEY    # stored in ~/.lium/credentials
lium pods list

For the SDK and MCP server, set LIUM_API_KEY in the environment.

Quick "API Key" button (top-left)​

The API Key button at the very top of the sidebar (under your balance) copies your most recent active key to the clipboard and shows a toast. Handy for quick re-pastes; not a substitute for managing keys on the Access page.

Rotate, deactivate, delete​

On the Access → API Keys row:

  • ✏️ Edit — rename or set an expiry date.
  • 🗑️ Delete — revokes the key immediately. Anything using it (CLI session, running agent) will start getting 401s.

There's no separate "deactivate but keep" toggle yet — delete and recreate when you need to rotate.

What this unlocks for AI agents​

The whole Renters surface (pods, templates, volumes, backups, restores, scheduled termination) is exposed via the same REST API and via the MCP server. With one API key, an agent can:

  • Watch the marketplace and deploy a cheap pod when an A100 drops below your price ceiling.
  • Spin up a fresh pod for each job, run training, take a final backup, terminate.
  • Pull a backup down for inspection in your laptop, then fan out restores into many pods.
  • Manage templates: keep your team's images, tags, and entrypoints in sync from CI.

Schemas live in the OpenAPI spec. The Renters pages above each have a "For agents and automation" block at the bottom showing the curl/CLI equivalents of every UI flow.

Key hygiene​

  • One key per integration. If your laptop's key leaks, you only revoke that one.
  • Set an Expires at for short-lived agents (CI runners, hackathon scripts).
  • Don't bake keys into Docker images or templates. Set them as env vars at runtime, or use the agent itself to deploy with a short-lived key.
  • Never put a key in a non-CVM pod's filesystem — see Pod security.