There are two methods of authenticating with the management API: using a secret key associated with a specific environment in a project (secretKey), or using a personal access token (personalAccessToken). Both methods should only be used in a backend server, as they provide full access to the project.
There is a separate authentication strategy when making requests from your frontend application. See the Frontend guide for more information. This guide is for backend usage only.
Certain API functions work with both authentication methods, but require different arguments depending on the method used. For example, the runs.list function can be called using either a secretKey or a personalAccessToken, but the projectRef argument is required when using a personalAccessToken: 
import { configure, runs } from "@trigger.dev/sdk/v3";

// Using secretKey authentication
configure({
  secretKey: process.env["TRIGGER_SECRET_KEY"], // starts with tr_dev_ or tr_prod_
});

function secretKeyExample() {
  return runs.list({
    limit: 10,
    status: ["COMPLETED"],
  });
}

// Using personalAccessToken authentication
configure({
  secretKey: process.env["TRIGGER_ACCESS_TOKEN"], // starts with tr_pat_
});

function personalAccessTokenExample() {
  // Notice the projectRef argument is required when using a personalAccessToken
  return runs.list("prof_1234", {
    limit: 10,
    status: ["COMPLETED"],
    projectRef: "tr_proj_1234567890",
  });
}

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Secret key

Secret key authentication scopes the API access to a specific environment in a project, and works with certain endpoints. You can read our API Keys guide for more information.

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Personal Access Token (PAT)

A PAT is a token associated with a specific user, and gives access to all the orgs, projects, and environments that the user has access to. You can identify a PAT by the tr_pat_ prefix. Because a PAT does not scope access to a specific environment, you must provide the projectRef argument when using a PAT (and sometimes the environment as well). For example, when uploading environment variables using a PAT, you must provide the projectRef and environment arguments: 
import { configure, envvars } from "@trigger.dev/sdk/v3";

configure({
  secretKey: process.env["TRIGGER_ACCESS_TOKEN"], // starts with tr_pat_
});

await envvars.upload("proj_1234", "dev", {
  variables: {
    MY_ENV_VAR: "MY_ENV_VAR_VALUE",
  },
  override: true,
});