Django REST Framework Simple API Key is a fast and secure API Key authentication plugin for REST API built with Django Rest Framework.
For the full documentation, visit https://drf-api-key.koladev.xyz. Deciding between this and another package? See the comparison with djangorestframework-api-key, OAuth2, and JWT.
Notice: The djangorestframework-simple-apikey package was renamed to drf-simple-apikey to improve usability and align with common naming conventions. If you still have the old package installed, update it:
- Replace the old package:
pip uninstall djangorestframework-simple-apikey pip install drf-simple-apikey
See the migration guide for details.
Django REST Simple Api Key is a package built upon Django, Django REST Framework, and the fernet cryptography module to generate, encrypt, and decrypt API keys. It provides fast, secure and customizable API Key authentication.
Requirements:
- Python 3.10, 3.11, 3.12, or 3.13
- Django 4.2.17+ or Django 5.x (up to 6.0)
- Django REST Framework 3.15.2+
Why should you use this package for your API Key authentication?
-
⚡️Fast: We use the fernet cryptography module to generate, encrypt, and decrypt API keys. Besides the security facade, it is blazing fast allowing you to treat requests quickly and easily.
-
🔐 Secure: Fernet guarantees that a message encrypted using it cannot be manipulated or read without the key, which we call
FERNET_KEY. The package includes comprehensive security features like timing attack protection, HTTPS enforcement, IP validation, and audit logging. As long as you treat the fernet key a 9848 t the same level you treat the DjangoSECRET_KEYsetting, you are good to go. -
🔧 Customizable: The models, authentication backend, and permissions classes can be rewritten and fit your needs. We do our best to extend Django classes and methods, so you can easily extend our classes and methods.😉 Your Api Key authentication settings are kept in a single configuration dictionary named
DRF_API_KEYin thesettings.pyfile of your Django project. It can be customized to fit your project needs. -
📝 Well-typed: The entire codebase includes comprehensive type annotations, making it easier to work with in modern Python development environments.
1 - Install with pip:
pip install drf-simple-apikey2 - Register the app in the INSTALLED_APPS in the settings.py file:
# settings.py
INSTALLED_APPS = [
# ...
"rest_framework",
"drf_simple_apikey",
]3 - Generate a Fernet key and put it in an environment variable — never hardcode it in settings.py or commit it to version control. Treat it exactly like your Django SECRET_KEY.
python manage.py generate_fernet_key# settings.py
import os
DRF_API_KEY = {
"FERNET_SECRET": os.environ["DRF_API_KEY_FERNET_SECRET"],
}4 - Run migrations:
python manage.py migrateIn your view then, you can add the authentication class and the permission class.
⚠️ Important Note: By default, authentication is performed using theAUTH_USER_MODELspecified in the settings.py file.
from rest_framework import viewsets
from drf_simple_apikey.backends import APIKeyAuthentication
from drf_simple_apikey.permissions import IsActiveEntity
from rest_framework.response import Response
class FruitViewSets(viewsets.ViewSet):
http_method_names = ["get"]
authentication_classes = (APIKeyAuthentication,)
permission_classes = (IsActiveEntity,)
def list(self, request):
return Response([{"detail": True}], 200)For the full walkthrough — creating and handing off a key, calling the API with curl, revoking a key, and the common 401/403 failure cases — see Getting Started.
We implement an API key rotation strategy for this package. To learn more about it, refer to the documentation at https://drf-api-key.koladev.xyz/docs/rotation.
You can find a demo in project in the example directory. To run the project, you can :
cd example
pip install -r requirements.txt
python manage.py migrate
python manage.py runserverSee CHANGELOG.md.
Thank you for your interest in contributing to the project! Here's a guide to help you get started:
-
Setup Development Environment:
git clone https://github.com/koladev32/drf-simple-apikey.git
Use the command below to set up your environment:
make install -
Format the Code:
Before submitting any code, please ensure it is formatted according to our standards:make format -
Check Code and Migrations:
Validate your changes against our checks:make check -
Run Migrations:
If your changes include database migrations, run the following:make migrations -
Run Tests:
Always make sure your changes pass all our tests:make test
See CONTRIBUTING.md.