Using JWT as API Keys: Security Best Practices & Implementation Guide

This blog post explains why traditional static API keys fall short for enterprise needs and recommends adopting stateless, self-describing JSON Web Tokens (JWT) for scalability and security. It provides implementation guidance—use RS256, short token TTLs with refresh tokens, JWKS-based key discovery, audience and time validation, graceful key rotation, and minimal, non-sensitive claims—while warning against common pitfalls like logging raw tokens and ignoring revocation strategies. The piece emphasizes operational practices to maintain uptime and security across distributed systems.