Authenticate with a custom API key header

AuthenticationMiddleware only knows how to extract Bearer <token> from the Authorization header. For anything else — an API key in X-Api-Key, a signed cookie, mTLS client cert — you have two options:

Keep AuthenticationMiddleware and implement a custom AuthenticatorInterface that is tolerant of your token format (fine if clients still send Authorization: Bearer <key>).
Replace AuthenticationMiddleware with a custom middleware that pulls the credential from wherever it lives, calls your authenticator, and sets the identity on the request.

This guide covers option 2 — because an X-Api-Key header isn’t a bearer token.

1. Define an identity class

You can reuse JwtAuthIdentity if you don’t mind the misleading name. For clarity, define a dedicated one:

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

namespace App\Security;

use apivalk\apivalk\Security\AuthIdentity\AbstractAuthIdentity;

final class ApiKeyIdentity extends AbstractAuthIdentity
{
    /** @var string */
    private $accountId;
    /** @var string[] */
    private $scopes;
    /** @var string[] */
    private $permissions;

    /**
     * @param string[] $scopes
     * @param string[] $permissions
     */
    public function __construct(string $accountId, array $scopes, array $permissions = [])
    {
        $this->accountId = $accountId;
        $this->scopes = $scopes;
        $this->permissions = $permissions;
    }

    public function getAccountId(): string
    {
        return $this->accountId;
    }

    public function getScopes(): array
    {
        return $this->scopes;
    }

    public function getPermissions(): array
    {
        return $this->permissions;
    }

    public function isAuthenticated(): bool
    {
        return true;
    }
}

2. Implement the authenticator

Keep credential validation isolated from HTTP plumbing. The authenticator takes a raw string and returns an identity or null.

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

namespace App\Security;

use apivalk\apivalk\Security\AuthIdentity\AbstractAuthIdentity;
use apivalk\apivalk\Security\Authenticator\AuthenticatorInterface;
use App\Domain\ApiKey\ApiKeyRepository;

final class ApiKeyAuthenticator implements AuthenticatorInterface
{
    /** @var ApiKeyRepository */
    private $repository;

    public function __construct(ApiKeyRepository $repository)
    {
        $this->repository = $repository;
    }

    public function authenticate(string $token): ?AbstractAuthIdentity
    {
        $record = $this->repository->findActiveByHash(\hash('sha256', $token));
        if ($record === null) {
            return null;
        }

        return new ApiKeyIdentity(
            $record['account_id'],
            $record['scopes'],
            $record['permissions']
        );
    }
}

Store hashes, not raw keys. Compare in constant time if you can — a database index lookup by hash does that for you implicitly.

3. Write the middleware

This replaces AuthenticationMiddleware (don’t add both; you’d double up on work).

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

namespace App\Security;

use apivalk\apivalk\Http\Controller\AbstractApivalkController;
use apivalk\apivalk\Http\Request\ApivalkRequestInterface;
use apivalk\apivalk\Http\Response\AbstractApivalkResponse;
use apivalk\apivalk\Middleware\MiddlewareInterface;
use apivalk\apivalk\Security\Authenticator\AuthenticatorInterface;

final class ApiKeyMiddleware implements MiddlewareInterface
{
    /** @var AuthenticatorInterface */
    private $authenticator;

    public function __construct(AuthenticatorInterface $authenticator)
    {
        $this->authenticator = $authenticator;
    }

    public function process(
        ApivalkRequestInterface $request,
        AbstractApivalkController $controller,
        callable $next
    ): AbstractApivalkResponse {
        foreach (['X-Api-Key', 'x-api-key', 'X-API-KEY'] as $candidate) {
            if ($request->header()->has($candidate)) {
                $raw = (string)$request->header()->get($candidate)->getValue();

                $identity = $this->authenticator->authenticate($raw);
                if ($identity !== null) {
                    $request->setAuthIdentity($identity);
                }

                break;
            }
        }

        return $next($request);
    }
}

Notes:

Passive, like AuthenticationMiddleware. Invalid or missing keys don’t short-circuit — we let SecurityMiddleware decide based on the route’s RouteAuthorization. This keeps public routes public.
Header name variants. ParameterBag::has() is case-sensitive. If your web server normalises headers you may only need one variant, but covering three common casings is cheap insurance.

4. Register it in place of `AuthenticationMiddleware`

$authenticator = new ApiKeyAuthenticator($apiKeyRepository);

$configuration->getMiddlewareStack()->add(new ApiKeyMiddleware($authenticator));
$configuration->getMiddlewareStack()->add(new SecurityMiddleware());

5. Declare the security scheme for OpenAPI

Tell the OpenAPI generator that this API is secured via an apiKey in the X-Api-Key header. The name (ApiKeyAuth below) is what your routes reference.

use apivalk\apivalk\Documentation\OpenAPI\Object\ComponentsObject;
use apivalk\apivalk\Documentation\OpenAPI\Object\SecuritySchemeObject;

$components = new ComponentsObject();
$components->setSecuritySchemes([
    SecuritySchemeObject::apiKey(
        'ApiKeyAuth',  // name — link to routes
        'header',      // in
        'API key'      // description
    ),
]);

Swagger UI will prompt the user for a key and send it on matching requests. See OpenAPI Generator / Security Schemes for the full mapping rules.

6. Protect routes

public static function getRoute(): Route
{
    return Route::get('/api/v1/reports')
        ->routeAuthorization(
            new RouteAuthorization('ApiKeyAuth', ['reports'], ['reports:read'])
        );
}

Supporting both JWT and API keys

Run both middlewares. Whichever header the client sent populates the identity; SecurityMiddleware doesn’t care which authenticator was used, only whether the identity satisfies the route policy.

$configuration->getMiddlewareStack()->add(new AuthenticationMiddleware($jwtAuth));   // Bearer
$configuration->getMiddlewareStack()->add(new ApiKeyMiddleware($apiKeyAuth));        // X-Api-Key
$configuration->getMiddlewareStack()->add(new SecurityMiddleware());

Because both are passive, a request carrying neither credential still falls through as a guest — the route’s RouteAuthorization decides whether that’s allowed. In your ComponentsObject, register both schemes (BearerAuth and ApiKeyAuth). Different routes can require different schemes; the SecuritySchemeObject.name passed to RouteAuthorization picks which one OpenAPI displays.

Rotating keys

Because the authenticator looks up keys by hash, revocation is “delete the row” and rotation is “insert a new row, tell the customer, delete the old row after a grace period”. Nothing is cached at the authenticator level — you rely on your database. If you front the repository with a short-lived cache, remember to invalidate on rotation.

Getting started

Concepts

HTTP

Resources

Routing

Cache

Middleware

Documentation (OpenAPI)

Core System

Security

Customization

How-To Guides

API Standards

Authenticate with a custom API key header

1. Define an identity class

2. Implement the authenticator

3. Write the middleware

4. Register it in place of `AuthenticationMiddleware`

5. Declare the security scheme for OpenAPI

6. Protect routes

Supporting both JWT and API keys

Rotating keys

​1. Define an identity class

​2. Implement the authenticator

​3. Write the middleware

​4. Register it in place of AuthenticationMiddleware

​5. Declare the security scheme for OpenAPI

​6. Protect routes

​Supporting both JWT and API keys

​Rotating keys

1. Define an identity class

2. Implement the authenticator

3. Write the middleware

4. Register it in place of `AuthenticationMiddleware`

5. Declare the security scheme for OpenAPI

6. Protect routes

Supporting both JWT and API keys

Rotating keys