import AuthScripts from "../snippets/auth.mdx"

# Authenticating Your Requests

This guide explains how to **authenticate your API requests** to the noon Partner API using service account credentials.

## Prerequisites
- you already have a **noon Partner account**.
- You have created a **service account** and downloaded the service account key file (`.json`). If you haven't done this yet, follow the steps in the [Getting Credentials][getting-credentials] guide.



## Step 1: Get Your API Key

To use the API, you need a **service account key file** (a `.json` file with your credentials).

- If you don't have one yet, follow the [Authentication Guide][getting-credentials] to create it.
- If you already created a service account, locate the downloaded `.json` file — this will be your API key.

⚠️ **Keep this file secure.** It contains your private key and must never be committed to source control.



## Step 2: Authenticate and Make you First API call

Use your API key file to generate a **JWT token** and exchange it for a session cookie.
This cookie is required for all subsequent requests.

:::warning Required Header: User-Agent
All API requests **must** include a `User-Agent` header identifying your application. Requests without this header may be rejected.

**Example:**
```
User-Agent: YourAppName/1.0.0
```
:::

<AuthScripts/>


## Step 3: Next Steps

Now that you can authenticate and call APIs, you can visit the [API Reference][auth-login] for the full list of endpoints.