To work with foundation models in IBM watsonx.ai programmatically, you must authenticate to prove that you are authorized to access watsonx.ai resources.
REST API credentials
For most API methods, you must include an IBM Cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM) bearer token as your access token with the request. You use an IBM Cloud API key to generate an IAM bearer token.
To authenticate REST API requests, complete the following steps:
-
You can create the IBM Cloud API key in various ways.
For more information, see IBM Cloud API key.
-
Use the IBM Cloud API key to create an IAM bearer token.
For more information, see Generating an IBM Cloud IAM token by using an API key.
-
Specify the IAM token when you submit a REST request.
curl -X 'POST' https://{region}.ml.cloud.ibm.com/ml/v1/text/generation --header "Authorization: Bearer {IAM-token}..."
You are responsible for refreshing the token when it expires. To refresh the token, repeat the procedure starting from Step 2.
Python library credentials
When you use the Python library, you can choose to use an API key or an IAM token.
If you create the IAM token yourself and pass the token to the library, then you must manage refreshing the token before it expires.
When you pass your API key to the APIClient in the library, the client generates the IAM token and refreshes the token as needed.
Using the IBM Cloud API key with the library
You can create the IBM Cloud API key in various ways. For more information, see IBM Cloud API key
The following sample code snippet shows how an API key is used directly for authentication when using the Python library.
from ibm_watsonx_ai.foundation_models import ModelInference
model_inference = ModelInference(
model_id="ibm/granite-13b-chat-v2",
credentials={
"apikey": "***",
"url": "https://{region}.ml.cloud.ibm.com"
},
project_id="*****"
)
Using the APIClient
Alternatively, you can use the APIClient that is available in the library. After you instantiate the client, you don't need to specify credentials with each method.
from ibm_watsonx_ai import APIClient
from ibm_watsonx_ai import Credentials
credentials = Credentials(
url = "https://{region}.ml.cloud.ibm.com",
api_key = "{api-key}"
)
client = APIClient(credentials)
For more information, see Authentication.
You can set a default project or space ID also. For more information, see Finding the project ID.
Learn more
Parent topic: Coding generative AI solutions