Cloudinary API Authentication

How to authenticate Cloudinary API requests: one Bearer API key plus a connectionId. MindCloud stores your Cloudinary credentials — no auth headers to build.

Every Cloudinary API request through MindCloud needs two things: a MindCloud API Key and a connectionId for your Cloudinary account. This page covers both, plus exactly how to send them, so you do not need to visit any other page to get authenticated.

Steps to authenticate

Create a MindCloud account at app.mindcloud.co if you do not already have one.
Generate a MindCloud API Key in API Keys. This is the Bearer token you send on every request. Keep it on your server.
Create a Cloudinary connection in Connections. Cloudinary uses a username and password. You enter them when you create the connection — MindCloud stores them securely so your requests never carry raw credentials.
Copy the connection’s connectionId — you will send it on every request alongside your MindCloud API Key.

How requests are authenticated

Authentication has two layers. Your MindCloud API Key authenticates the request to MindCloud, sent as a Bearer token in the Authorization header. The connectionId selects the connected Cloudinary account that should run the action. MindCloud stores and refreshes the Cloudinary credentials behind that connection, so you never send provider tokens with your requests.

Pass connectionId in the query string for GET and DELETE actions, and in the JSON body for POST, PUT, and PATCH actions.

For example, calling Ping with an Cloudinary connection looks like this:

curl --request GET \
  --url "https://connect.mindcloud.co/v1/universal/cloudinary/latest/actions/ping" \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $MINDCLOUD_API_KEY" \
  --get \
  --data-urlencode "connectionId=$CONNECTION_ID"

The Authorization: Bearer <your MindCloud API Key> header authenticates you to MindCloud; the connectionId tells MindCloud which Cloudinary account to run the action against. Missing or invalid Authorization returns 401, and a missing or mismatched connectionId returns 400.

Connect Cloudinary

You need a Cloudinary account and permission to view API keys in Console Settings.

Open API Keys in Cloudinary
Sign in to Cloudinary and open the API Keys page in Console Settings.
Console Settings → API Keys
Copy your Cloud name
On the API Keys page, copy the Cloud name for the product environment you want to connect.
Copy your API Key and API Secret
Copy the API Key and API Secret from the same page. In MindCloud, use the API Key as the Basic Auth username and the API Secret as the Basic Auth password.

Keep your key safe

Keep your MindCloud API Key on your server; do not ship it in browser code, mobile apps, public repositories, or logs. Anyone with the key can call the Universal API as your MindCloud account, across every connection you have created.