You will need to get an api account before you can authenticate with us and get a api key. Lucky for you we created a page for you to apply for one.
Once you have your api account ready you will need to setup your application with us. Go to your account page to fill in a few simple details such as application name, description and callback url and we will give you back a api key and a secret
Currently we only allow web based applications to access our api and in the future this is set to change. But for now head over to the web based guide to see how its done.
Feel you need to know more about the exact workings of our authentication system? visit authentication specification to view the api authentication guide.