> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://developers.madkudu.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://developers.madkudu.com/legacy-api/authentication.md).

# Authentication

The MadKudu Legacy API uses HTTP Basic Auth and requires using HTTPS on all API calls.

Your API Key should be used as the basic auth username. You do not need to provide a password.

For example, if your user’s API key was `ABCD1234`, you need to Base64 encode the string `ABCD1234:` (Please note the colon at the end) and prepend the string `Basic`\`. In this case, this would result in a final header of:

`Authorization: Basic QUJDRDEyMzQ6`

## Ping API endpoint

> Test endpoint to verify API connectivity and authentication. Returns status 'ok' if the authorization is valid.

```json
{"openapi":"3.1.0","info":{"title":"MadKudu Legacy API","version":"0.0.0"},"tags":[{"name":"Utilities"}],"servers":[{"url":"https://api.madkudu.com","description":"Legacy API server","variables":{}}],"security":[{"BasicAuth":[]}],"components":{"securitySchemes":{"BasicAuth":{"type":"http","scheme":"Basic"}},"schemas":{"Services.Utilities.PingResponse":{"type":"object","required":["status"],"properties":{"status":{"type":"string","enum":["ok"],"description":"Status of the API"}},"description":"Ping response"},"Common.Errors.AuthenticationError":{"type":"object","required":["message"],"properties":{"message":{"type":"string","description":"Error message"}},"description":"Authentication error"},"Common.Errors.RateLimitError":{"type":"object","required":["message"],"properties":{"message":{"type":"string","description":"Error message"},"details":{"type":"string","description":"Rate limit details"}},"description":"Rate limit exceeded error"},"Common.Errors.InternalServerError":{"type":"object","required":["message"],"properties":{"message":{"type":"string","description":"Error message"}},"description":"Internal server error"}}},"paths":{"/v1/ping":{"get":{"operationId":"Utilities_ping","summary":"Ping API endpoint","description":"Test endpoint to verify API connectivity and authentication. Returns status 'ok' if the authorization is valid.","parameters":[],"responses":{"200":{"description":"The request has succeeded.","content":{"application/json":{"schema":{"$ref":"#/components/schemas/Services.Utilities.PingResponse"}}}},"401":{"description":"Access is unauthorized.","content":{"application/json":{"schema":{"$ref":"#/components/schemas/Common.Errors.AuthenticationError"}}}},"429":{"description":"Client error","content":{"application/json":{"schema":{"$ref":"#/components/schemas/Common.Errors.RateLimitError"}}}},"500":{"description":"Server error","content":{"application/json":{"schema":{"$ref":"#/components/schemas/Common.Errors.InternalServerError"}}}}},"tags":["Utilities"]}}}}
```


---

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