Identity & Security
Binding key
A second factor attached to a virtual key so the key string alone isn't enough to spend. A token that leaks without its binding key is a dead key — exfiltrating the string buys an attacker nothing.
Example
A tk_live_… key gets pasted into a public code repo by mistake. Because spending also requires the binding key, which never traveled with it, the leaked string can't be used. What would have been a five-figure incident is a non-event.
This is a Tokenality concept. See how it works in the product overview or the live playground.
Related terms
Virtual AI Key
A governed stand-in for a raw provider API key: a key you issue per team, person, project, or agent that carries its own budget, its own limits, and full attribution — while the real provider key stays hidden. The concept mirrors the virtual credit card, where each card has its own limit and owner. (In Tokenality these are issued as tk_live_… keys.)
Budget cap (hard cap)
A spending limit enforced before a call is sent, not an alert fired after. When the cap is reached, the next call is refused — no spend occurs. A hard cap is a circuit breaker; an alert is a smoke detector that may or may not wake anyone.
Anomaly detection
Watching spend or usage for sudden deviations from the normal pattern and flagging them the instant they happen, so a spike is caught on the request path rather than in next month's report.