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Making Beautiful API Keys

docs.agentstation.ai

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Re: Making Beautiful API Keys

#71

Post by mossTechnician »

tommica wrote: post #18
anticorporate wrote: post #6

I love the throwback reference to the Diablo II CD key. There are some CD keys that will be forever etched in my brain, no matter how many PINs I struggle to remember. I suspect a good number of you know far too much of a certain string that starts with FCKGW.

For those who don't know: https://scribe.rip/@cristian.nedelcu/fckgw-rhqq2-yxrkt-8tg6w...

This topic looked interesting, so I hunted down a better frontend for that full Medium article[0]. The writing is unsatisfying, doesn't really say anything, and by the last paragraph ("The tale of the product key... is a continuing demonstration of the never-ending struggle that takes place between the technological sector and the unyielding world of hackers") I was convinced the author was just posting a ChatGPT response. Which is sad, because I'd have liked to see the backstory for something apparently shrouded in mystery. But since there appears to be little explanation to how that key was leaked before Windows itself went on sale, I'll just enjoy the memory of the cultural phenomenon[1][2].

[0] https://freedium.cfd/https://medium.com/@cristian.nedelcu/fc...

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19298196

[2] https://marco.org/2007/06/18/wow-fckgw-has-its-own-wikipedia...

Re: Making Beautiful API Keys

#72

Post by benterix »

moebrowne wrote: post #70
benterix wrote: post #59

The author mentions readability - if they care about it, they should eliminate all ambiguous characters like 0Oo1l.

They use Crockford Base32 encoding which does exactly that.

I don't think so since the sample key they present in the big image contains many of these. The caption is "An example API key generated by github.com/gofrs/uuid and encoded with github.com/agentstation/uuidkey." - so something is wrong.

Re: Making Beautiful API Keys

#74

Post by alt227 »

fbuitron wrote: post #63
stitched2gethr wrote: post #21

I guess this is an unpopular opinion given the existing comments, but I don't get it. They spent time and energy on this instead of writing features or fixing bugs and I don't think it matters at all. The only interaction I have with my API keys is copying them from one place to another. If I need to manually identify a key then putting the first or last few chars, whatever they are, in my working memory is more than…

Sometimes someone caring about details is what makes everything better. Nobody is going to choose their product just because their API Keys. But they are generating a halo effect. Is like going to a restaurant with outstanding bathrooms. If they put a lot of care in that, you immediately assume they do the same in all the other aspects of their product/service.

IMO formatting an API key string is not equal to an outstanding bathroom. Its more akin to a valve you put under the floor of the bathroom. You put it there once to make things work and you will never see it again.

Will it make you feel better to know that you have the shinier valve which looks prettier? Maybe, but nobody else will ever know and it will work just the same as the valve everyone else has in their bathroom which cost 10% of the price.

Re: Making Beautiful API Keys

#76

Post by xdennis »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #44
a12k wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I totally agree. This looks like a pretty new startup too. I would be livid if my team had spent so much time on this instead of building capabilities to get the startup traction.

Yall are so dramatic. It's a trivial library to write. 99% of it is just deciding what you want the output to look like + writing the blog post.

Not trying to be mean, but the fact that they spend that much time on ids is an indication that the team could have misplaced priorities in other regards as well.

Re: Making Beautiful API Keys

#77

Post by kimi »

stitched2gethr wrote: post #21

I guess this is an unpopular opinion given the existing comments, but I don't get it. They spent time and energy on this instead of writing features or fixing bugs and I don't think it matters at all. The only interaction I have with my API keys is copying them from one place to another. If I need to manually identify a key then putting the first or last few chars, whatever they are, in my working memory is more than…

Agreed. I'll copy and paste it anyway. It's not that instead of an UUID you have "FluffCat47" that is easy to type and remember, it's a freaking UUID as well (ok, 31 characters vs 36 - saves a huuge 15% of your fingertips...)

Re: Making Beautiful API Keys

#78

Post by alt227 »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #60
great_wubwub wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, the code is easy but navel-gazing and agonizing over the prettiest way to replace a long jumble of dash-separated lowercase characters with a slightly shorter jumble of dash-separated uppercase characters is an insane thing to spend any time on at all. Convince me this has any commercial value and isn't just bikeshedding.

This is just what it looks like to care about the details, though certainly a more trivial case than most. The resistance to it is part of why most engineer-types like HNers can't build UX. They think it's all agonizing and navel-gazing, so they don't deliberate over anything. And they don't practice it, so when they see someone making deliberate UX decisions, even trivial ones, they think it must have taken a lot of…

> This is just what it looks like to care about the details

This isnt caring about the details, this is going over the top on something completely unneccessary just to get attention for it.

Re: Making Beautiful API Keys

#79

Post by alt227 »

inexcf wrote: post #69
alt227 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This statement makes me never want to use their product.

I agree. They seem to focus on completely useless stuff that actively makes it worse to use.

Not only that, they are making the biggest mistake a company can do by telling their customers that what they are doing is wrong and that the company knows better than they do.

Re: Making Beautiful API Keys

#80

Post by rw_panic0_0 »

stitched2gethr wrote: post #21

I guess this is an unpopular opinion given the existing comments, but I don't get it. They spent time and energy on this instead of writing features or fixing bugs and I don't think it matters at all. The only interaction I have with my API keys is copying them from one place to another. If I need to manually identify a key then putting the first or last few chars, whatever they are, in my working memory is more than…

yeah it's an unpopular opinion
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