Authentication - Clay docs

Every request to the Clay Public API must include a Clay API key in the clay-api-key header. Store your key in an environment variable and pass it in the header:

export CLAY_PUBLIC_API_KEY="your_api_key"

curl https://api.clay.com/public/v0/me \
  -H "clay-api-key: $CLAY_PUBLIC_API_KEY"

API keys are tied to a Clay user and workspace access. Create one under Settings → Account → API keys (beta). Keep keys server-side and do not expose them in browser code, mobile apps, public repositories, logs, or analytics tools.

Header	Required	Description
`clay-api-key`	Yes	Personal API key for the Clay Public API.

Failed authentication

Requests without a valid API key return a non-2xx response with the standard error shape:

{
  "message": "Authentication failed"
}