---
description: Protect APIs with schema validation, rate limiting, and authentication.
title: Secure API endpoints
image: https://developers.cloudflare.com/og-docs.png
---

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# Secure API endpoints

Last updated Apr 24, 2026|Copy as Markdown|[View as Markdown](https://developers.cloudflare.com/use-cases/application-security/api-endpoints/index.md)|[Agent setup](https://developers.cloudflare.com/agent-setup/)

API endpoints are vulnerable to schema violations, abuse, and unauthorized access. Cloudflare API Shield validates requests against your OpenAPI specification, and mutual TLS (mTLS) authenticates known clients with certificates.

## Solutions

### API Shield

Discover, secure, and monitor your APIs. [Learn more about API Shield](https://developers.cloudflare.com/api-shield/).

* **API discovery** \- Automatically identify API endpoints in your traffic, including undocumented ones
* **Schema validation** \- Reject requests that do not conform to your OpenAPI specification
* **Sequence mitigation** \- Detect and block API abuse patterns such as out-of-order requests

### mTLS

Mutual TLS client certificate authentication. [Learn more about mTLS](https://developers.cloudflare.com/ssl/client-certificates/).

* **mTLS authentication** \- Require client certificates for machine-to-machine API access

## Get started

1. [API Shield get started](https://developers.cloudflare.com/api-shield/get-started/)
2. [Set up mTLS](https://developers.cloudflare.com/ssl/client-certificates/)

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