> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.currents.dev/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.currents.dev/authentication/authentication.md).

# Overview

How something outside Currents proves who it is - an API key for automation, an OAuth grant for an application a person drives, or a personal access token for a person's own scripts and tools

Currents accepts three kinds of credential, and which one to use follows from whether a person is behind the calls, and whether an application is holding the credential on their behalf.

|                                                                     |                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| [OAuth](/authentication/oauth.md)                                   | An application acts as the person who authorized it, inside one organization, limited to the permissions they approved and capped by their role. Revocable per person, per organization, from the dashboard.                             |
| [Personal Access Tokens](/authentication/personal-access-tokens.md) | A person's own credential for one organization, carrying the permissions chosen when it was created and expiring on a date set then. Created by an administrator for themselves, with no application and no authorization flow involved. |
| [API Keys](/dashboard/administration/api-keys.md)                   | An organization credential with a single `Read Only` or `Read & Write` level. It names no user, so it suits CI and anything else with nobody behind it.                                                                                  |

Reporters uploading test results use a [record key](/guides/record-key.md) instead, which is neither of these - it identifies a project to report into and reaches nothing else.


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