# API Key Overview

# Preamble

There are multiple ways to use the API key. Each of them has its own benefits and drawbacks. Use the list below to choose the best option for you.

In general there are three ways to use the API Key:

a) Session Based

b) Sessionless With Local Decryption

c) Sessionless With Remote Decryption

	Session Based	Sessionless With Local Decryption	Sessionless With Remote Decryption
Usecase	Build pipelines / Console client as alternative to web based clients.	Implementation in code to dynamically load specific secrets	Buildpipelines as proof of concept when the psonoci for some reason is no option
Permission	Read & Write of Datastores, Secrets, ...	Read of specific Secrets	Read of specific Secrets
Implementation Effort	medium (with the official client)	high	low
Simple client support (e.g. curl)	No	No	Yes
Server gets temporary access to decrypted data	No	No	Yes
Necessity to decrypt data locally	Yes	Yes	No
Data Encryption	Yes	Yes	No
Additional Transport Encryption	Yes	No	No

WARNING

We highly discourage the usage of the sessionless usage with remote decryption.