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🚀 Quick Start

Upload your first file to Lighthouse through the S3 API in about five minutes. You will:

  1. Get a Lighthouse API key
  2. Create S3 credentials
  3. Configure the AWS CLI
  4. Create a bucket and upload
  5. What's next?

1. Get a Lighthouse API key​

If you don't have one yet, create an API key from the Lighthouse dashboard (API Keys section) or see Create an API Key.

2. Create S3 credentials​

Exchange your Lighthouse API key for an S3 access key + secret key pair:

curl -X POST https://s3.lighthouse.storage/-/keys \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_LIGHTHOUSE_API_KEY"
{
  "accessKey": "LHAK7F3A9C21D48E55B0",
  "secretKey": "3q9Zt...your-secret...",
  "region": "us-east-1",
  "message": "save the secret key now — it cannot be shown again"
}
caution

The secret key is shown exactly once. Store it somewhere safe immediately — it cannot be retrieved later. If you lose it, revoke and re-create your keys.

3. Configure the AWS CLI​

aws configure set aws_access_key_id LHAK7F3A9C21D48E55B0
aws configure set aws_secret_access_key YOUR_SECRET_KEY
aws configure set default.region us-east-1

The only thing that changes vs. Amazon S3 is the endpoint, passed with --endpoint-url:

# optional: a shell function so you don't repeat the endpoint
s3() { aws --endpoint-url https://s3.lighthouse.storage "$@"; }

4. Create a bucket and upload​

s3 s3 mb s3://my-first-bucket
s3 s3 cp photo.jpg s3://my-first-bucket/photo.jpg
s3 s3 ls s3://my-first-bucket

Your file is now on Lighthouse. Grab its CID from the object metadata:

s3 s3api head-object --bucket my-first-bucket --key photo.jpg \
  --query 'Metadata.cid' --output text
bafybeigdyrzt5sfp7udm7hu76uh7y26nf3efuylqabf3oclgtqy55fbzdi

That CID is a standard IPFS content identifier — the same file, addressable on the IPFS network.

tip

Download it back with s3 s3 cp s3://my-first-bucket/photo.jpg ./photo-copy.jpg, or create a shareable time-limited link with s3 s3 presign s3://my-first-bucket/photo.jpg --expires-in 3600.

5. What's next?​