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A venue is configured through one set of services behind two front doors. Which door you are at decides what may hold the secret, and nothing else: the same validation runs, the same compare-and-swap guards the same revisions, and the same refusal comes back word for word.

A browser never holds a venue key

A venue key authenticates a venue’s own server. Putting one in a browser hands every person who opens the developer tools a credential that configures your venue, so the operator door exists precisely so that never has to happen. The console at /developer uses it, and there is no build of that console that accepts a key. The two doors are also judged differently, because the requests differ. A key arrives with an Authorization header and no Origin; a browser arrives with an Origin and no header. A write from a browser with no trusted Origin is refused as origin_not_allowed, and a bearer header is never accepted as an exemption from that check.

Every configuration call exists on both

Instruments, conditions, groups, routes, stages, providers and the firm’s accounts (issue, list, balance, reset, halt, resume, analytics) are reached at the same suffix under either prefix. POST /api/partner/venues/{venueId}/routes and POST /api/operator/venues/{venueId}/routes create the same route, take the same body and the same Idempotency-Key, and refuse the same things. The reference lists the partner form of each of these. Swap the prefix and drop the bearer header to read it as the operator call.

Six calls exist only on the session door

These are the calls made before a venue exists, or about the person rather than the venue. A key names a venue, so it could not express them even if a browser were allowed to carry one. Issuing and revoking a venue key is session-only for the same reason in reverse: no key may mint another key.

Which one to use

Use the session door when a person is deciding — setting up a venue, changing a collar, publishing a pricing plan. Use the key when your own software is deciding, on a schedule or in response to something your system saw. Neither is a fallback for the other. A key that has lost its scope is not fixed by signing in, and a session that is not an owner is not fixed by minting a key.