Checklist

API Security, Rate Limits & Governance Checklist

Interactive, audit-ready checklist to secure API-based AI integrations. Covers secrets management, per-tenant quotas and rate limits, request validation, logging and monitoring, credential rotation, incident response, cost controls, and governance. Save responses to create an evidence trail and guide remediation.

Interactive Tool

API Security, Rate Limits & Governance Checklist

Use this checklist to evaluate and harden API integrations with AI services. For each line-item, select the current state (Yes / Partial / No) and add notes or links to evidence. Save your responses to create an audit trail for remediation, handoffs, or governance reviews.

This checklist is intentionally practical: it focuses on control objectives, acceptance criteria, and immediate next steps to reduce risk, prevent runaway costs, and stop abusive integrations.

Examples: Vault, AWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault. Verify access control and audit logs for the vault.
Keys should be scoped by environment (dev/test/prod) and by customer/tenant when applicable to limit blast radius.
Verify that tokens grant only the permissions needed for the integration and that admin-level keys are rare and audited.
Include per-key, per-tenant, and per-IP limits where feasible. Define behavior for bursts and backpressure.
Quotas should include alert thresholds and an enforced hard cap where business-critical.
Reject malformed requests early. Enforce maximum request sizes and strict content-type checks to avoid abuse.
Prefer token-based auth with short-lived tokens. Consider mutual TLS for high-risk integrations.
Collect request context (tenant, key id, endpoint). Set alerts for sudden spikes, high error rates, or unusual geographic patterns.
Avoid logging full customer data or secrets. Use redaction or hashing for identifiers when needed for troubleshooting.
Rotation frequency should match risk. Ensure consumers can rotate keys without downtime. Document revocation steps.
Runbooks should define detection, containment, communication, and post-incident review steps.
Confirm vendors only receive the minimum data needed. Secure webhook endpoints and validate payloads.
Set billing alerts and programmatic caps. Test overage behavior to avoid surprise bills.
Include load testing for quotas, fuzzing for input validation, and scenario tests for abuse patterns.
Document who approves new integrations, who can create keys, and how data classifications affect allowed flows.
Include step-by-step onboarding, sample code, and where to find runbooks and SLAs.
For integrations that touch sensitive data or critical systems, record formal risk approval and mitigation plans.
Record ticket IDs, runbook links, dashboards, or owners for unresolved items.
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