Account Setup

This page walks through the shared setup steps for all ACE users. Whether you use the Policy Manager to enforce compliance on smart contracts or the Identity Manager to manage cross-chain identities and credentials, complete these steps first.

1. Create your organization

Go to app.chain.link and create an account or sign in.

Once signed in, click "My Org" in the bottom-left corner of the sidebar to open the Organization page. Your Organization ID is displayed in the page header — copy it.

The Organization page showing your Organization ID in the header.

2. Share your Organization ID

Share your Organization ID with your Chainlink contact so they can enable the ACE service for your organization. You cannot create API keys or use ACE until this step is complete.

3. Create an API key

Once your account has been provisioned for the ACE service, create an API key for authentication:

1. Log in to the Chainlink App, click "My Org" at the bottom of the left sidebar, then select the "APIs" tab.
2. Click "+ Organization API".
   

   The APIs tab on the Organization page. Click '+ Organization API' to create a new key.

3. Enter a name for the key and select an expiration period (1 day, 1 month, or 1 year).
   

   Enter a name, select an expiration period, and click Generate.

4. Click "Generate". The API key is displayed once — copy it immediately.

You will use this key in the Authorization header for all Coordinator API and Reporting API calls:

curl https://ace.api.chain.link/v1/<endpoint> \
  -H "Authorization: Apikey <API_KEY>"

4. Set up CRE Connect Wallets

Before you can use ACE — whether from the Platform UI or the Coordinator API — you need a CRE Connect Wallet on each blockchain network where you want to operate.

A CRE Connect Wallet is a dedicated onchain smart contract wallet that acts as the execution gateway for all ACE actions on a given chain. When you trigger an action (deploy a policy engine, register an identity, issue a credential), the ACE platform executes the blockchain transaction through your CRE Connect Wallet. For a full explanation of how the signing and ownership model works, see Signing & Ownership Model.

Key points:

• One wallet per chain. You need a CRE Connect Wallet on every network where you plan to use ACE. See Supported Networks for available chains.
• You own it. The owner_address you provide when creating the wallet becomes the owner of the CRE Connect Wallet onchain.
• Chainlink operates through it. Chainlink is registered as an authorized operator — allowed to execute operations on your behalf, but unable to change ownership or authorization settings.
• Self-signing organizations must also provide the address of the ECDSA signer authorized to sign operations. See Signing & Ownership Model for details on how each signing model works.

curl -X POST https://ace.api.chain.link/v1/wallets \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Apikey <API_KEY>" \
  -d '{
    "wallets": [
      {
        "owner_address": "<YOUR_WALLET_ADDRESS>",
        "chain_selector": "16015286601757825753"
      },
      {
        "owner_address": "<YOUR_WALLET_ADDRESS>",
        "chain_selector": "3478487238524512106"
      }
    ]
  }'

{
  "wallets": [
    {
      "id": "3fa85f64-5717-4562-b3fc-2c963f66afa6",
      "org_id": "org-123",
      "chain_selector": "16015286601757825753",
      "owner_address": "0x1234...5678",
      "wallet_address": "0xabcd...ef01",
      "status": "created",
      "created_at": 1775580000,
      "updated_at": 1775580000
    },
    {
      "id": "8b2e1c4a-9f3d-4a7b-b6e8-1d2f3a4b5c6d",
      "org_id": "org-123",
      "chain_selector": "3478487238524512106",
      "owner_address": "0x1234...5678",
      "wallet_address": "0x9876...5432",
      "status": "created",
      "created_at": 1775580000,
      "updated_at": 1775580000
    }
  ]
}

curl https://ace.api.chain.link/v1/wallets \
  -H "Authorization: Apikey <API_KEY>"

What happens next

Your next step depends on what you need to do:

Many organizations do both. Start with whichever is most relevant to your first use case — the quick start guides cross-reference each other where the workflows intersect.