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How much does the University of Arkansas
publish each year?

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Ask your agent, and it asks OpenAlex.

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25,613 works in ten years,
counted by one web address.

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No key, and the answer even says
what it cost: a hundredth of a cent.

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AI for

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Research Efficiency. Episode 10:
Research APIs, a ladder of keys.

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Last time: what never goes to an agent,
and why keys live in a .env file.

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In this episode: three research services,
and the three kinds of key they take:

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none, a free key you limit,
and a key that spends money.

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One: an API is a door for programs.

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You ask with a web address,
and the answer comes back as JSON:

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plain text that a program can read.

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OpenAlex adds what each answer cost, and
how much of today's allowance is left.

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Two: no key at all.

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OpenAlex catalogs the world's research:
works, authors, institutions.

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Its data is free to reuse,
for anything.

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Ask the agent to read
the documentation first.

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Names are ambiguous, so it finds the
university's ID before it counts.

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One request groups ten
years of works by year.

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It's only a web address: open it in a
browser, and the numbers are the same.

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Without a key, you get ten cents of use
a day: about 1,000 of these requests.

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A free key gives you ten times that.

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Three: a free key you limit.

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Your reference library is private.

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Zotero's API needs a key to read it,

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and you choose what the key may do:
read, and nothing else.

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The key goes in the .env file, never into
the chat, even where a guide suggests it.

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The agent gets only
the variable's name.

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Then ask:
is anything in my library retracted?

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Here the library is
exported as a list of DOIs,

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and the agent checks each one against
OpenAlex. Single lookups are free.

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One comes back retracted, a flag OpenAlex
takes from the Retraction Watch database.

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Open the notice,
and confirm it yourself.

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Notice the agent's note, too: it
calls OpenAlex's email lane optional.

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That lane closed in February,

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which is why you ask an agent
to read the current documentation.

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When the work is done,
delete the key.

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Four: where a key can go.

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Claude Code can be told never to read
the .env file, and here it refused.

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But a script it ran
could still read the key.

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Codex has a setting for
which variables reach its commands,

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and by default it doesn't remove names
with KEY, SECRET or TOKEN in them.

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Antigravity's sandbox blocks
.env files, but in its command line,

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the sandbox is off
until you turn it on.

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So in all three:
the key stays in the file,

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the agent gets its name,
and you read what a script prints.

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Five: a key that spends money.

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ElevenLabs turns text into speech.

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It's paid, and it's the service
that narrates this series.

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Before a paid request, estimate.

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This summary of the practice
folder's paper is 401 characters:

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about 45 credits.

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Make a key for this job only:
text to speech, with a credit limit.

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The request names the key's variable,
and the key itself never appears.

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Then listen before you use it.

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summary.mp3:
Draining rice paddies now and then,

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instead of keeping them flooded,
cuts methane.

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And check the license: ElevenLabs'
free plan is for non-commercial use,

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with its name in the title. Paid
plans include a commercial license.

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Six: manners.

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401 or 403 means no key,
or the wrong one.

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429 means too many requests:
wait, and try again, more slowly.

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And data comes with a license.

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OpenAlex's is free for any use; some
services allow only non-commercial use,

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and Google Scholar has no API at all.
The companion page lists them.

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Pause here, and try one:

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ask your agent for your campus's
works per year from OpenAlex.

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No key needed.
Then open the address it used.

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So: no key, a key you limit,
a key that spends.

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Each key in the .env file,

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each paid request estimated,
each answer checked.

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Next: Map a research
field with OpenAlex.