apiusers

Apiusers are the client identities that access an API. The term covers both human developers who call an API from applications and automated systems, such as services or microservices, that invoke API endpoints. In API management, each apiuser is associated with credentials and permissions that govern what resources can be accessed and what actions can be performed.

Credentials include API keys, OAuth 2.0 access tokens, and JWTs. Each apiuser is granted scopes or roles that limit access to specific resources. Authentication and authorization are typically enforced by an API gateway or the service itself, enabling centralized control, auditing, and enforcement of security policies.

Credential lifecycle involves registration, issuing credentials, rotating keys, and revoking access when a project ends or a contract terminates. Best practices emphasize least privilege, per-api or per-endpoint scopes, regular key rotation, and secure storage of secrets.

Management features often include rate limits and quotas at the apiuser level to prevent abuse, along with usage analytics and auditing to monitor activity, detect anomalies, and support compliance.

In practice, apiusers are common in cloud platforms and microservice architectures, where services must authenticate to access resources or call other services. The term is not universally standardized, but is widely used in documentation to refer to client identities for API access.