Vamo sign-in or API key: which should I use?

An AI tool has to prove who you are before Vamo will answer it. There are two ways. You sign in through your browser, or you give the tool a Vamo API key. Use sign-in when your tool offers it, and a key when it does not.

What sign-in is

Your AI tool opens a Vamo page in your browser. The page names the tool and shows what it will be able to do. You approve, and the tool is connected.

There is nothing to copy and nothing to store. No secret passes through your hands, so there is none to lose.

The tool then appears under Connected tools on Set up > API keys. The entry shows who approved it.

A signed-in tool can search and enrich by default. It stays connected while you keep using it. After a long stretch without use, it asks you to sign in again.

What an API key is

An API key is a secret you create in Vamo and give to one tool. The tool sends the key with every request. Vamo reads the key and knows which account is asking.

You create a key on Set up > API keys. Vamo shows it once. Every key begins with vamosk.

You choose what each key can do when you create it. Pick a preset, or pick permissions one by one. The page also shows when each key was last used.

A key is a secret, so it needs a private home. Keep your API key safe covers where to put it.

Which one suits you

Choose sign-in if you work in a chat-style AI tool and want the shortest setup. It suits anyone who would rather not handle a secret.

Choose a key in these cases:

• Your tool has no sign-in for Vamo.
• You use Vamo skills, which call Vamo with a key.
• You or a coding agent call the Vamo API directly.
• You want to choose the exact permissions yourself.

You can use both on one account. A signed-in chat tool and a key for a coding agent work side by side.

Which AI tools offer sign-in

The Pick your tool section at Set up by hand shows the right option for your tool. It offers sign-in for Claude Code, Claude Desktop and ChatGPT.

For Cursor, Codex and other tools, that section gives a setup code. You paste one line into your agent. The agent trades the code for a key and sets itself up. You still end up with a key, without copying it by hand.

That section writes the current steps for the tool you pick. Tools change, so that section is the place to look.

What both need

Sign-in and keys follow the same rules.

• Plan. API keys are on Pro and Enterprise. Approving a sign-in needs the same plan.
• Role. Owners, admins and users can create a key or approve a sign-in. A read-only member cannot do either.
• Reach. Either one can search, research, rank, and work with lists and contacts. Neither can touch projects, outreach, members or billing.

A tool can never do more than the person who connected it.

If the sign-in page says connecting tools needs Pro or Enterprise, read sign-in fails or plan not included.

Turning either one off

Both are turned off on Set up > API keys.

To disconnect a signed-in tool, remove it under Connected tools. To stop a key, revoke it. A key cannot be changed in place. Create a new one, then revoke the old one.

You see your own keys. Owners and admins see every connected tool on the account.

What to do next

• New to this? Start with choose how to connect.
• To review what has access today, read connected tools and keys.