# Confusion about API Authenticated User **URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/confusion-about-api-authenticated-user/310042 **Category:** Development **Tags:** rest-api **Created:** [May 30, 2024, 11:37pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/confusion-about-api-authenticated-user/310042 "2024-05-30T23:37:43Z") **Posts on this page:** 1 **Showing post:** 4
### Author: ![BrainFried](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/brainfried/32/388499_2.png) [@BrainFried](https://meta.discourse.org/u/BrainFried) #### Post date: [May 31, 2024, 6:13am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/confusion-about-api-authenticated-user/310042/4 "2024-05-31T06:13:14Z")
As a headless implementation, I will be running this from my front end. So, in this case it seems like I need spend some time trying to decipher the discussion on this topic then: > [@User API keys specification](https://meta.discourse.org/t/user-api-keys-specification/48536): > > Discourse contains a system for generating API keys per user if a very specific protocol is followed. This feature facilitates “application” access to Discourse instances without needing to involve moderators. High level description At a high level: Client (desktop app, browser plugin, mobile app) generates a private/public key pair and return url Client redirects to a route on discourse giving discourse its public key Discourse gets approval from user to use app Discourse generat… Similar to these discussions, I would be interested in auto-generating the users api-key using my admin api access However, in my flow, I wouldn’t want the user to redirect to a new page to “approve” my app. I will either want to force approval using my trusty admin api key or is there a setting that I can disable so that additional authentication is not needed for the new user-api-key that I generate? --- _[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/confusion-about-api-authenticated-user/310042)._