# auth.md

Berrycrawl uses one normal API key for REST and MCP integrations. A human creates the key in **Dashboard → API keys** and adds it to the target project's server environment. A coding agent does not need a Berrycrawl login, claim code, OAuth exchange, or secret pasted into chat.

```text
BERRYCRAWL_API_KEY=bc_...
```

The API base is `https://api.berrycrawl.com/api/v1`. Send the key as a bearer token:

```bash
curl https://api.berrycrawl.com/api/v1/scrape \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BERRYCRAWL_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url":"https://berrycrawl.com","formats":["markdown"]}'
```

Keep the key server-side. Do not commit it or expose it through browser-visible env variables such as `VITE_*` or `NEXT_PUBLIC_*`.

For the copy-paste integration workflow, read [Agent quickstart](https://docs.berrycrawl.com/docs/guides/agent-quickstart) and [`llms.txt`](https://berrycrawl.com/llms.txt).