# Prerequisites and Authentication

## Generate API Keys

To use our API, you will need to generate some API keys to authenticate all your requests.

To generate your API keys:

1. Sign in to your Belvo Dashboard.
2. Choose the environment you want to create API keys for (Sandbox or Production). If you're just starting to use the Belvo API, we recommend using the **Sandbox** environment.
3. Go to **Developers** -> **API Keys**.
4. Click on **Generate API Keys**, which will automatically generate your API keys.
5. In the pop-up, copy and securely save the values for **Secret ID** and **Secret Password**.
**Note**: In the pop-up, you also have the option of forking Belvo's API collection. For more information on how to use Postman and Belvo's collection, see our Getting started in 10 minutes guide.


✳️ **Done**! You've just generated your API keys! But before you can start making API calls, you just need to set up a webhook where we can send events to.

## Add a webhook URL

Just testing out?
If you're just starting your integration and aren't sure how to get a URL for a webhook, you can use a service like Pipedream. Check out our Getting started in 10ish minutes to see how it's done!

To set up a new webhook:

1. Sign in to your Belvo Dashboard.
2. Choose the environment you want to receive webhook events for (Sandbox or Production).
3. Go to **Developers** -> **Webhooks**.
4. Click **+New webhook**.
5. Fill in the **New webhook** form with the required information.
  1. **URL**: the URL to receive the webhook notifications.
  2. **Authorization**: an optional bearer token to use if your URL is protected.
6. Click **Create webhook**.


✳️ **Done**! You've now created a webhook and can start creating links and receiving events!

### Whitelisting Belvo IP addresses

Belvo will send events to your webhook URL from the IP addresses listed below. Your security team may want to add these to their list of IP addresses that they allow events from (otherwise, your system may block events from reaching your system).

- `3.130.254.46`
- `18.220.61.186`
- `18.223.45.212`