Building with an AI agent? See the Agents guide for how to do this programmatically from code.
Get Your Secret Key
Go to Developers > Secrets in your dashboard and copy your secret key (
aks_live_...).Make Your First Request
Use your secret key in the
Authorization header. The request body stays unchanged from the provider’s API.- cURL
- SDK
- TypeScript
Check the Dashboard
Go to Analytics > Requests in your dashboard. Find your request by timestamp or request ID to see token counts, cost breakdown, model, and provider — all captured automatically.See the Forward Proxy guide for multi-provider examples, streaming, error handling, and advanced configuration.
What’s Next?
Charge Your First Customer
Set up pricing and checkout to monetize your AI service
How Lava Works
Understand Lava’s architecture, gateway routing, and key concepts
Troubleshooting
Where is my secret key?
Where is my secret key?
Go to Gateway > Secrets. If the section is missing, verify you’re logged into a merchant account (not a wallet-only account).
401 Unauthorized
401 Unauthorized
402 Insufficient Balance
402 Insufficient Balance
Your Lava wallet needs funds. Go to Wallet > Billing to add a payment method.
What about forward tokens?
What about forward tokens?
Using your secret key directly is the simplest way to get started — costs are charged to your merchant wallet. When you need to bill customers, you’ll use a forward token instead: a base64-encoded JSON that bundles your secret key with a
customer_id and meter_slug. See the Forward Proxy guide and SDK reference for details.