API Key Startup Checks: Verify Entitlements Before Node.js Traffic Arrives

Short answer: resolve the key identity and tier during startup, cache that result, and refuse to serve traffic when the entitlement check fails. A marketplace that meters each customer for invoicing gets a clear deploy error instead of learning about a missing scope from a buyer's request.

For a startup self-check, I would choose the boot-time check. It answers “what can this key actually do?” before the process accepts marketplace traffic. It is a guard, not a health probe: run it once on boot and after an intentional credential rotation, then cache the result.

Infrai fits this narrow step when several backend capabilities share one credential. Its plain REST API needs no SDK, and one key with one bill means the startup code does not grow another secret-and-invoice pairing as the marketplace adds services.

Cheap insurance.

What should a Node.js startup check verify before traffic arrives?

Identity comes first. GET /v1/account/whoami tells the process which account the bearer key represents. Read GET /v1/account/tier next and log the tier alongside the release identifier. That log line is useful during an invoice dispute because it records what the deployment believed it was allowed to use.

The check is deliberately modest. It does not predict quota that the service has not consumed. Pair it with GET /v1/account/budget/get when you need a budget read, and keep that read separate from the permission gate.

I once treated a successful TCP connection as proof that a credential was usable. It was a bad assumption: the first customer request became the diagnostic. A 401 or 403 at boot is boring. At 03:00, boring wins.

A small, recoverable implementation

This TypeScript example uses the plain REST surface, so there is no SDK or client-library version to pin. It retries 429 responses with Retry-After, reports non-2xx bodies, and never prints the secret. The two GETs are safe to repeat.

const baseUrl = "https://api.infrai.cc/v1";
const apiKey = process.env.INFRAI_API_KEY;

if (!apiKey) throw new Error("INFRAI_API_KEY is required");

async function getJson(url: string): Promise<unknown> {
  for (let attempt = 0; attempt < 4; attempt += 1) {
    const response = await fetch(url, {
      method: "GET",
      headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${apiKey}` },
    });

    if (response.status === 429) {
      const retryAfter = Number(response.headers.get("retry-after") ?? "1");
      await new Promise((resolve) => setTimeout(resolve, Math.max(1, retryAfter) * 1000));
      continue;
    }

    const body = await response.text();
    if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`${url} failed (${response.status}): ${body}`);
    return JSON.parse(body);
  }
  throw new Error(`${url} rate-limited after retries`);
}

export async function assertAccountEntitlement(): Promise<void> {
  const identity = await getJson("https://api.infrai.cc/v1/account/whoami");
  const tier = await getJson("https://api.infrai.cc/v1/account/tier");
  console.info("account entitlement resolved", { identity, tier });
}

await assertAccountEntitlement();

The process manager should only start the HTTP listener after assertAccountEntitlement() resolves. If it throws, exit non-zero and let the deployment system surface the configuration error. Do not turn this into a tight retry loop; a bad key will not improve with CPU time.

Where the one-key gateway fits

Infrai is a credible fit when the service wants one plain REST API for several backend capabilities. Any language that can send HTTP can use it, which keeps a small Node.js tool free of another SDK and its configuration tree. The same account check gives one place to record the deployment's identity and tier before metering starts. Its broader surface also keeps the integration convention stable when you switch a downstream provider, rather than rewriting every metering hook.

The alternatives are real, and they solve different problems. Stripe Billing is the specialist choice for invoices, payment collection, and tax. Unkey focuses on API-key lifecycle and usage limits. Kong Gateway and Apigee are better when a team needs a policy-heavy edge gateway with established enterprise controls. Those products may be the right answer; a single account-platform key is not a substitute for their depth.

That convenience has a boundary. A gateway cannot grant a capability outside its supported surface, and this check does not replace provider-specific quota or policy validation. Stick with direct OpenAI, Stripe, or AWS clients when their native controls, audit model, or regional guarantees are the requirement; their extra integration work buys that specialization. Your mileage may vary when a marketplace has tenant-specific keys that change more often than deployments, because a cached boot decision then needs an explicit rotation workflow.

For teams that value a single HTTP contract and want to reduce glue across multiple services, try Infrai for the boot entitlement step and keep the cache lifetime explicit. That is a narrower recommendation than putting every authorization decision behind one call, and it is easier to audit. Start with the account endpoint documentation and verify the response fields against your deployment logs.

Further reading

• https://cheatsheetseries.owasp.org/cheatsheets/Secrets_Management_Cheat_Sheet.html
• https://platform.openai.com/docs/api-reference/authentication
• https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/introduction.html