API Authentication

Introduction

Dub uses two distinct types of authentication keys depending on where your code runs. Choose the right one for your use case:

Key type	Use case	Where to use
API keys	Server-to-server (REST APIs)	Back-end only; store securely, never expose to client
Publishable keys	Client-side conversion tracking	Safe to include in frontend code

API keys

API keys on Dub allow you to access your workspace programmatically. This is useful for integrating Dub into your application or with other tools and services.

Each API key is tied to a specific workspace – meaning you can use it to access that workspace’s resources without having to worry about “leaking” access to other workspaces.

API keys on Dub follow the format:

.env

DUB_API_KEY=dub_xxxxxxxx

By default, you can use this key to perform any API request without restriction, so it must be stored securely in your app’s server-side code (such as in an environment variable or credential management system). Don’t expose this key on a website.

Create an API key

You can create an API key by following these steps:

1. Go to your workspace

   Go to Settings > API Keys in your workspace.

   
2. Create an API Key

   Click on the “Create” button and select permissions you want to grant to the API key.

   Select between “You” and “Machine” to associate the API key with your account or a machine user.

   • You: This API key is tied to your user and can make requests against the selected workspace.
   • Machine: A machine user will be added to your workspace, and an API key associated with that machine user will be created.

   

   Click on the Create API Key button to create the key. Make sure to copy your API key and store it in a safe place. You won’t be able to see it again.

   
3. Use your API Key

   Now that you have your API key, you can use it to access your workspace’s resources programmatically via SDKs or within any API request as a bearer token.

   Authorization: Bearer dub_xxxx
   

We recommend creating API keys with the least privilege necessary to perform the required tasks. This helps to reduce the risk of unauthorized access to your workspace.

API key permissions

When creating a secret key, you can select the permissions it has, which will give the key access to certain (or all) resources on Dub. Here are the different permission options:

Permission	Description
All permissions	This API key will have full access to all resources.
Read only	This API key will have read-only access to all resources.
Restricted	This API key will have restricted access to some resources: Links Analytics Domains Tags

Depending on your use case, you might want to use one of these 3 options to limit the scope of the API key and improve security. When making API calls, if your API key has insufficient permissions, the error should tell you which permissions you need.

Machine users

On Dub, you can create API keys that are associated with a “Machine user”. This is particularly helpful when you don’t want to associate the API key with a particular user in your workspace, to avoid security risks in involving turnover or changes in project ownership.

Machine users share the same permissions as the owner role in a workspace. Make sure to only create machine users for trusted applications.

These machine users will show up on your workspace’s People tab, but will not contribute to your workspace’s user count.

If you delete an API key associated with a machine user, the machine user will be deleted. Vice versa, if you delete a machine user, their corresponding API key will be deleted as well.

Publishable keys

Publishable keys on Dub allow you to safely embed authentication in client-side applications.

These keys are specifically designed to be used with Dub’s client-side SDKs for features like conversion tracking.

Unlike API keys which must be kept secret, publishable keys can be safely exposed in your frontend code since they have limited capabilities.

Publishable keys on Dub follow the format:

.env

DUB_PUBLISHABLE_KEY=dub_pk_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Create a publishable key

You can create a publishable key by following these steps:

1. Generate your publishable key

   Before you can track conversions on the client-side, you need to generate a publishable key from your Dub workspace.

   To do that, navigate to your workspace’s Analytics settings page and generate a new publishable key under the Publishable Key section.

   
2. Allowlist your site's domain

   Then, you’ll need to allowlist your site’s domain to allow the client-side conversion events to be ingested by Dub.

   To do that, navigate to your workspace’s Analytics settings page and add your site’s domain to the Allowed Hostnames list.

   This provides an additional layer of security by ensuring only authorized domains can track conversions using your publishable key.

   

   You can group your hostnames when adding them to the allow list:

   • example.com: Tracks traffic only from example.com.
   • *.example.com: Tracks traffic from all subdomains of example.com, but not from example.com itself.

   When testing things out locally, you can add localhost to the Allowed Hostnames list temporarily. This will allow local events to be ingested by Dub. Don’t forget to remove it once you’re ready to go live!

3. Use your publishable key

   You can now use your publishable key to authenticate client-side requests in your application. Usage will depend on the client-side SDK you are using.