# Authentication
Our API is designed to be secure and efficient, and it requires an API key to authenticate your requests. In this short documentation, we'll guide you on how to use our API with the x-api-key header to ensure successful integration.
<h3>Step 1: Obtain Your API Key</h3>
Before you can start using our API, you'll need to obtain an API key. This key acts as your access pass and is typically provided to you by your contact person. If you haven't received your API key, please reach out to our support team or your sales person.
<h3>Step 2: Include the x-api-key Header</h3>
To make authenticated requests to our API, you must include the API key in the header of your HTTP requests. Specifically, you should add the "x-api-key" header with your API key as its value.
`x-api-key : <API KEY>`
<h3>Step 3 [OPTIONAL]: White list your IP address(es) for your production environment </h3>
Although this step is optional, we strongly encourage you to send us an list of your IP addresses that are in use in your production environment.
This lets us configure Trigg to only allow access to your API account from those IP's.