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API keys

Create a key to call the AdCrunch REST API from your own code, understand whose permissions it uses and when it stops working, and revoke it.

On this page

An API key lets your own code call AdCrunch. Use one for a script, a scheduled job, or a backend service — anywhere no person is present to sign in.

You do not need a key to connect an AI agent. Claude, Cursor, and ChatGPT connect over MCP and sign in through your browser. See Auth & scopes for that. A key is for code you write.

Create a key

  1. Open Settings, then API keys

    Go to the console, then Settings → API keys. The page lists the keys your organization has, when each was created, when each was last used, and when each expires.

  2. Name the key for the job that will use it

    “Nightly budget sync” tells you which job stops if you revoke that key. “Key 1” does not.

  3. Choose when it expires

    30 days, 60 days, 90 days, one year, or never. The default is 90 days. A key that expires stops working on that date, so put the date in your calendar with the job that uses it.

  4. Copy the key

    The key appears once. AdCrunch stores a hash of it, so nobody can show it to you again — not you, and not AdCrunch support. Copy it into your secret store now. If you lose it, revoke it and create another.

Warning

A key can change your ad accounts

A key can pause a campaign, raise a budget, and create ads. Handle it as you handle a payment credential. Do not commit it, do not put it in a browser, and do not paste it into a page that asks for it.

Whose permissions a key uses

A key acts as the organization that was active when you created it, with the permissions of the person who created it.

Three consequences matter before you build on one.

  • The organization is fixed. A key keeps acting on the organization it was created for, whatever you switch to afterwards. It cannot reach another one.
  • The creator’s permissions are read on every request, not copied. Change that person’s role and the key changes with it, immediately.
  • The key stops working if the creator leaves the organization. AdCrunch finds no membership, grants nothing, and every request answers 403. Deleting the creator’s account answers 401 instead. Neither the key nor the job that uses it reports this in advance.

Tip

Create keys from an account that stays

A key created by somebody who later leaves takes their job down with them. For a job that has to keep running, create its key from an account that is not tied to one person’s employment.

Use a key

Send it as a bearer token:

curl https://insight.api.adcrunch.dev/entities/ \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer acr_your_key_here"

Every AdCrunch REST API takes the same header. The API reference lists the endpoints.

Revoke a key

Revoke a key from the same page. It stops working immediately, and anything still using it receives 401.

Revoke one when its job is retired, when somebody with access to it leaves, and the moment you think one has leaked. To replace a key without stopping the job, create the new key first, deploy it, and revoke the old one after.

Tip

One key for each job

Separate keys let you revoke one job’s access without touching the others, and the name in the list tells you which job you are about to stop.