API keys, explained
A password, but for a robot.
If you can copy and paste, you can do this. No coding required — just three short steps below.
What it is
You sign in with a password. Your tools sign in with a key.
When you open Bindry in a browser, you sign in as yourself — with a code sent to your email or phone. But a coding assistant like Claude Code or OpenAI Codex isn’t a person sitting at a keyboard signing in each time. It needs its own way in, one it can use on its own, in the background, without you typing a code every single time it wants to check your work.
That's what an API key is: a long, random password made for a program to use instead of you. You generate one, paste it into your tool's settings once, and from then on that tool can read and create your Bindings and Stacks on your behalf — the same things you'd otherwise be doing by hand in the browser.
Why Bindry needs one
So your agent can work without you babysitting it.
Bindry's whole point is letting a coding agent pull in the standards, style guides, and rules you've already written down — automatically, every time it works — instead of you pasting them into a chat window over and over. To do that, the agent needs to reach into Bindry and fetch your Bindings and Stacks itself. An API key is what lets it do that.
The one rule to remember
One key per team.
A key only ever works for the one workspace it was made in — it can't see or touch any other team, even another one you belong to. Work with two different teams? Make two keys, one on each team's own Team page. That's what keeps a key you hand to an agent for "Company A's coding standards" from ever being able to see "Company B's" work too.
Getting one
Three steps, about a minute.
- 1
Open your workspace’s Team page
Every workspace you belong to — including your own personal one — has a Team page. Keys are made there, one workspace at a time.
- 2
Give it a name
Something that reminds you what it’s for later, like "My laptop" or "Claude Code — the Acme project." That’s the only required field.
- 3
Copy it once
Bindry shows you the key exactly one time. Paste it wherever your tool asks for it, then it’s gone from view for good — not even Bindry can show it to you again.
What it can't do
Every key is deliberately limited, on purpose
- Invite, remove, or manage anyone on your team
- Touch billing, plans, or seats
- See or reach any workspace other than the one it was made in
Inviting people, changing plans, and billing all stay things only you can do signed in, in the browser — no key, however it was generated, can ever reach them.
Ready to connect a tool?
Once you have a key, the setup guide for your tool walks through exactly where it goes.