Ducens · Sheet 03 / 08 Pillar · Learn

The part of AI literacy nobody sells you.

What these systems actually do, in short lessons you finish. Each one ends when you can explain the thing to a client, not when a video runs out.

Lesson L-01 · Open on this sheet

DOTTED WORDS CARRY NOTES · TAP ONE03·B

When is a key an API key

L-01 · 4 MIN · ENDS WHEN YOU CAN EXPLAIN IT

Somewhere in your password manager sits a long string that starts with sk. That is a . It proves to a that requests come from your account, and whoever holds it can spend as you. A password opens your door. A key signs your name.

It becomes an API key the moment a program uses it instead of you. Paste it into a tool and you have handed that tool your signature, at whatever the key allows. Good tools ask for the narrowest scope that still works. Bad tools ask for everything and call it convenient.

SAY IT BACK THE LESSON ENDS WHEN YOU CAN

I can say what a key proves, and why holding one means spending as me. I can name who bills me, and what Ducens never sits between. I can ask a tool for the narrowest scope that still works.

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The first shelf

5 LESSONS · MINUTES, NOT COURSES03·C

L-01 When is a key an API key 4 MIN OPEN ABOVE

L-02 What an MCP actually is 6 MIN IN THE ALPHA

L-03 Where your data sits when you paste it 5 MIN IN THE ALPHA

L-04 What a token is, and why bills surprise you 4 MIN IN THE ALPHA

L-05 Permissions: read, write, and act 7 MIN IN THE ALPHA

Lessons are short because busy is the default state of the people Ducens is for. Nobody tells you what an MCP is, when a key is an API key, where any of it is stored. These do.

The first shelf ships with the alpha.

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