1. Account Setup

Before your game can talk to Pairiquium, you need a tenant account and an API key. This is a one-time setup step done through the dashboard, not something your game client ever touches.

From the Pairiquium homepage, pick a tier and sign up. This takes you through account registration and, for paid tiers, a checkout step. Hobby-tier accounts land straight in the dashboard with no payment required.

Create an API key

Once you're in the dashboard, open Config and use the API key panel to generate a key.

Give it a name you'll recognize later (e.g. Production Server, Staging).
Select the tickets:create scope — this is the only permission your backend needs for the integration flow in this guide.
Set an expiry if you want the key to rotate on a schedule. This is optional but recommended.

The key is only ever shown once, immediately after creation. Copy it into your backend's secret storage right away — Pairiquium doesn't keep a copy you can retrieve later.

Keep this key on your server

This key authenticates your backend, not a player. It must never be embedded in your game client, launcher, or any code an end user can read — see the next step for what goes wrong if it leaks.

Set up a game mode

Still on the Config page, create at least one game mode for your game (e.g. ranked_1v1). Players can only queue for game modes that exist and are enabled for your tier — you'll reference this name later when starting a search. See Game Modes for how the configuration options work.

With an API key and a game mode in place, move on to generating a ticket.

1. Account Setup

Sign up

Create an API key

Set up a game mode

Next