# Attio rejected this key Pasting an Attio workspace API key and being told it will not do is the commonest place to lose half an hour, because three quite different failures look alike at a glance: a paste that lost a character, a key Attio no longer honours, and a test that never got an answer out of Attio at all. The test is deliberately explicit about which of those happened. The heading on the panel is the part to read. ## The five answers | **Heading on the panel** | **What it means** | **What to do** | | ------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | "That key is the wrong length" | The pasted text is not exactly 64 characters. Nothing at all was sent to Attio. | Copy the key again, whole. The message reports how many characters you pasted. | | "Attio rejected this key" | Attio was asked about the key and would not have it. | Create a new key in Attio and paste that. | | "The key works but is missing permissions" | Attio accepted the key, then refused the reads the card needs. | Edit the same key in Attio. A new key is not required. | | "The connection could not be tested" | The test itself did not complete. Nothing was proven either way. | Try the same key again before replacing it. | | "Connected to …" | Attio confirmed the key, the workspace and the permissions. | Nothing. The workspace name on the panel is your proof the key belongs to the workspace you meant. | ## The length is checked before anything is sent An Attio workspace key is exactly 64 characters, and the screen says so under the field. A key of any other length is refused in the browser, so no call is spent and Attio never sees the fragment. The message names the count, which is what separates a truncated paste from a stray extra character: "You pasted 63 characters and an Attio workspace key is exactly 64, so this one is truncated or has something extra on the end. Nothing was sent to Attio. Copy the key again, including the whole string." Spaces around the key are trimmed before that count is taken, so a paste that picked up a leading or trailing space still works. ## A key Attio will not have When the key is the right length and Attio still refuses it, the panel reads: "The key is the right length but Attio will not accept it. It has usually been revoked, or it belongs to a different workspace. Create a new key in Attio under Workspace settings, Developers, and paste it here." The app asks Attio to identify the key rather than trying a read with it, which is how it can tell a key Attio does not recognise from Attio being unreachable. Success reports the workspace name and slug back to you, so a key that belongs to the wrong workspace is caught here rather than three steps later when the object list looks unfamiliar. ⚠️ **A reachability failure is reported under the rejected heading.** If Attio cannot be reached, times out, or answers with an error of its own during the test, the specific reason is printed first, for example "Capable could not reach Attio." or "Attio did not answer within 8 seconds.", but it appears under the "Attio rejected this key" heading with the create-a-new-key advice beneath it. Read the first sentence, not the heading. The separate "The connection could not be tested" panel is for the case where the test could not be run at all, so nothing was proven about the key either way. ## Nothing is stored unless the test passes The key is written to storage only after Attio has accepted it and the reads the card needs have been confirmed, so a bad paste cannot replace a connection that was working. Testing and saving are one action, on both screens: in the setup wizard Next does it, and on a configured project the Connection tab has "Test and save this key", which is unavailable until something is typed. Pressing Enter in the field does the same thing, and Cancel empties the box without changing anything. Once stored, a key is never sent back to the browser. The field always starts empty and shows a row of dots when a key is already stored; the help text adds "Leave this empty to keep the key this project already has." No screen in the app can display, copy or export the key, including for the person who pasted it. ## Testing the key you already have In the setup wizard, pressing Next with the key box empty re-tests the key the project already holds, which answers "is this connection still working" without going back to Attio for the string. On the finished settings page there is no equivalent: "Test and save this key" stays unavailable until something is typed, so the only way to test there is to paste a key. --- ## A few things worth knowing * "The connection could not be tested" is not a bad key. The panel says as much: "This is not the same as a bad key: nothing was proven about the key either way, so try again before you replace it." Replacing a good key at this point loses a working connection for no reason. * The connection test gives Attio eight seconds, while the card on an issue allows twelve. A slow spell at Attio can therefore fail a connection test on a project whose card is still working. * Opening the settings page does not test anything. The connection is only tested when an administrator tests it, so a key that stopped working shows up on the card, not on the settings screen. --- ## Related [The key works but is missing permissions](https://help.gocapable.com/attio-for-jira/the-key-works-but-is-missing-permissions.html) [The card says the Attio connection needs attention](https://help.gocapable.com/attio-for-jira/the-card-says-the-attio-connection-needs-attention.html) --- _Read the heading, then read the first sentence under it._