---
title: Stainless authentication | Stainless
---

We recommend you [use the Stainless CLI to authenticate with Stainless](/docs/docs-platform/quickstart/#authenticate/index.md), but you can also use an `.env` file:

1. Inside your site’s cloned repository on your computer, make a copy of the `.env.example` file and name it `.env` (these files are hidden, so you may not be able to see them by default)
2. Go to [your org settings in the Stainless dashboard](https://app.stainless.com/org/default/settings); if you have multiple orgs, make sure the one associated with your site is shown in the top left
3. Press the **Create new API key** button
4. Copy your new API key
5. Open your `.env` file and paste your new API over the placeholder value
6. Save your `.env` file

Your `.env` file should now contain a line that looks like the following, where `stl_sk_...` is the API key you pasted in:

.env

```
STAINLESS_API_KEY="stl_sk_..."
```