Authenticate to the Stax API

Stax provides two types of credentials for authenticating to the Stax API: API Tokens and Session Credentials. The credentials serve different purposes and your use case will dictate which type of credentials you will use.

Overview

The below table provides a summary of API Tokens and Session Credentials.

	API Tokens	Session Credentials
Description	Long-lived credentials you can create within Stax. Created by an administrator and can be assigned any role in Stax	Short-term credentials which are created as part of your Stax session. Mapped to an individual's Stax user credential and inherits their role
Use case	Designed for machines, such as automated build pipelines	Designed for humans, especially those who want to experiment and explore the Stax API on an ad-hoc basis
Usage	API Tokens can only be used with the Stax SDK for Python	Session Credentials can be used with a developer tool, such as Postman. They do not work with the Stax SDK for Python
Attributes	Name Description Tags Role Access Key Secret Key	Access Key ID Secret Access Key Session Token
Accessibility	Accessed via the Customer Menu in the left-hand nav, under API Tokens	Accessed via the left-hand nav, under the Profile page
Validity	Does not expire, however, regular credential rotation is recommended	Expires after 60 min