Authentication

AnonRouter separates credentials by purpose. A single bearer credential does not automatically receive both inference and account-management authority.

Credential types

Secrets are shown once when they are created. Store them in a secret manager or an environment variable. Keys are stored only as a hash, so a lost key cannot be recovered and must be replaced.

Private ticket flow

The recommended production flow has two steps:

1. Present the inference key to the control plane at POST /v1/inference/tickets and request a ticket.
2. Present the ticket to the relay in the x-anonrouter-ticket header.

The ticket is short-lived, single-use, and bound to the authorized request constraints (model, operation, output limit, and reasoning selection). The relay redeems the opaque ticket and never receives your key or account identity. A request whose model, output limit, or reasoning selection drifts from the ticket is rejected before any provider work.

Inference keys vs management keys

Inference keys (ar_) can list models, issue tickets, and run completions, embeddings, image generation, and speech. They cannot read account balance or usage.

Management keys (arm_) can read GET /v1/balance and GET /v1/usage. They cannot run inference or manage other keys.

Creating, listing, and revoking keys is a dashboard operation that requires an authenticated session. Neither key type can rotate keys programmatically. An account may hold up to 20 active inference keys and 5 active management keys.

Each inference key can carry an optional per-key credit limit and an opt-in compatibility flag.

Compatibility mode

Compatibility mode is intended for clients that can only send a static Authorization: Bearer ... header, such as off-the-shelf OpenAI SDK integrations.

Compatibility mode is opt-in and enabled per inference key, and it is only available where the operator has turned it on. See compatibility mode for the full integration.

Accounts

You can create an account two ways:

• Email and password. Standard sign-up with email verification.
• Private account. A username is assigned automatically, there is no email, and the session stays opaque. Your identity never becomes part of the inference request.

Recovery phrases

A private account can protect itself with a recovery phrase: a standard BIP-39 mnemonic, shown once at sign-up. The dashboard uses a 12-word phrase.

Recovery at POST /v1/private-accounts/recover verifies the phrase, resets the password, and revokes every existing session and API key. A recovery phrase only resets the account password. It does not derive a wallet or encrypt account data. Rotating the phrase invalidates all earlier phrases.

Management access

Management keys read account-level balance and usage metadata. They cannot run inference or create and revoke credentials. Credential lifecycle operations require an authenticated browser or private session.