Secure AI API Design: Authentication, Authorization, and Audit

AI APIs often have privileged access—to documents, to actions, to decisions that matter. Securing them requires more than standard API security practices. Here's what's different.

Authentication must handle both human and programmatic access. API keys for server-to-server, OAuth for user-facing applications. Consider short-lived tokens for AI agent systems that might be compromised through prompt injection.

Authorization is more complex than typical CRUD. AI might need different permissions depending on what it's asked to do. Implement capability-based permissions: this API key can query but not act, this one can act within limits, this one is unrestricted. Log permission checks, not just access.

Audit trails for AI systems need to capture context standard logs miss. Not just "deleted record X" but "deleted record X because AI determined Y based on input Z." When things go wrong—and they will—you need to understand why the AI made that decision.