# Authentication

OpenTelemetry uses HTTP Basic Auth with the same credentials as the [Lakehouse API](/docs/api-references/lakehouse.md). Use the credentials for the environment where you want to send logs and traces.

## Connect with an Authorization header

Add this header to your OpenTelemetry exporter configuration:

```http
Authorization: Basic {{BASE64_TOKEN}}
```

If your exporter has separate header name and value fields, use `Authorization` as the name and everything after the colon as the value, including `Basic`. The credentials are already encoded.

## Connect with a username and password

If your SDK or collector provides HTTP Basic Auth fields, use the lakehouse username and password from **API keys & credentials** in your organization settings.

**Continue in Altertable:** [Open credentials](/app)

To build the header yourself, Base64-encode `username:password`, then add `Basic` followed by a space before the encoded value.

## Endpoint host

Send OTLP/HTTP protobuf data to the standard paths on `api.altertable.ai`:

| Signal | Endpoint                                   | Content type             |
| ------ | ------------------------------------------ | ------------------------ |
| Traces | `POST https://api.altertable.ai/v1/traces` | `application/x-protobuf` |
| Logs   | `POST https://api.altertable.ai/v1/logs`   | `application/x-protobuf` |

## Learn more

- **[Send logs](/docs/ingest-data/opentelemetry/logs.md)**: configure log export.
- **[Send traces](/docs/ingest-data/opentelemetry/traces.md)**: configure trace export.
- **[OpenTelemetry API](/docs/api-references/opentelemetry.md)**: endpoint details for OTLP traces and logs.