# Get started

A first call to the distributor API needs one key, and Yutai issues keys through its operators, not through a form. This page walks the path in three steps: what you send, who approves it, and how the key reaches you once.

There is no form on this page: you send the ask to Yutai's operators in your first conversation, and the steps below are what happens with it. Nothing here sends anything.

## The ask

Send an operator three things. First, the name of your company as Yutai knows it: Yutai keeps every partner in its records as a distributor, and the key is made for the right distributor. Second, the name the key goes by, a short label you will recognise later. Third, the calls the key needs, picked from the closed list at the bottom of this page.

An operator of Yutai's network asks for the key with these facts, and the request then waits for an owner. If no owner answers, the request lapses after `3 days`.

## The approval

An owner of Yutai approves the request on their own passkey; one owner's approval is enough, and an owner who asked may approve their own request. No key exists before that approval stands, and the approval opens the collect window described next.

## The collect

The person who asked collects the key once, within `1 day` of the approval. The key is shown that one time and is stored nowhere: what Yutai keeps is only its first characters, so an operator can tell which key is which, and a proof of the whole key. Only the person who asked can collect it, and if the window closes first the request reads expired, so a new ask starts the path again.

## The key

Every call presents the key in the Authorization header, as a Bearer key: `Authorization: Bearer ytk_your-key`. A publishable key starts with ytk_pub_ and carries 64 lowercase hex characters after it. A secret key starts with ytk_ and carries 64 lowercase hex characters after it. The placeholder `ytk_your-key` stands for the key you hold; no real key rides this page.

## The scopes

A key carries only the calls it was asked for, each from one closed list. The operator picks them with you when the ask is sent, and each scope's call is described on the API reference page:

[holders.resolve](/docs/api): Resolve the holder a wallet belongs to.

[credentials.read](/docs/api): Read a holder's credential status.

[benefits.list](/docs/api): List a holder's benefits.

[eligibility.read](/docs/api): Read the benefits one or more wallets reach.

[availability.read](/docs/api): List a security's available benefits.

[claims.write](/docs/api): Record a benefit claim.

[connect.write](/docs/api): Create a Connect session and unlink a customer account.

[connect.read](/docs/api): Read Connect sessions and their outcomes.

To make your first call with the key, follow the [Quickstart](/docs/quickstart). When a call is refused, the [Errors and limits](/docs/errors) page says what the refusal means.

Once the key is in hand, the formats every value travels in are the [identifiers page](/docs/identifiers)'s, and the [example wallet](/docs/examples/wallet) shows a working call end to end.