API Policy & Usage Guidelines

1. Overview & Scope

The Aevum Zenth Global API gateway provides standardized, secure, and high-throughput access to data, services, and operational endpoints across all 400+ subsidiaries. This policy governs authentication, rate limiting, data handling, security compliance, and usage monitoring for all external and internal consumers.

Failure to comply with this policy may result in throttling, temporary suspension, or permanent revocation of API access. Aevum Zenth reserves the right to update this policy with 30 days notice for non-breaking changes.

2. Authentication & Authorization

All API requests must include valid credentials. We support the following methods:

• OAuth 2.0 / OpenID Connect: Required for enterprise, healthcare, and financial endpoints.
• API Keys: Standard for general data access. Must be rotated every 90 days.
• mTLS: Mandatory for inter-service and high-security divisional traffic.

Credentials must be passed via the Authorization header. Query parameter authentication is deprecated and will be disabled after March 1, 2026.

curl -X GET https://api.aevumzenth.com/v3/energy/grid-status \n  -H "Authorization: Bearer eyJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9..." \n  -H "X-Aevum-Client-ID: div_energy_prod_8842" \n  -H "Accept: application/json"

3. Rate Limits & Throttling

Rate limits are enforced per API key/client ID and vary by subscription tier. Exceeding limits returns 429 Too Many Requests with retry-after headers.

Throttled requests are queued or dropped based on the X-Retry-After directive. Implement exponential backoff with jitter to maintain reliability.

4. Data Usage & Privacy

API consumers are responsible for ensuring compliance with applicable data protection regulations, including GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA (Healthcare Division), and FINRA (Financial Services).

• Prohibited Uses: Reverse engineering, unauthorized scraping, training third-party ML models without explicit written consent, or redistributing raw Aevum Zenth datasets.
• Data Retention: Cached responses must not be stored beyond the max-age directive in cache headers. Enterprise clients may negotiate extended retention via SLA.
• Pseudonymization: PII must be hashed or tokenized before logging. Aevum Zenth provides built-in data masking endpoints for healthcare and identity verification.

5. Security Standards

All API traffic is enforced over TLS 1.3. HTTP requests are permanently rejected. The following security headers are required for state-changing operations:

• Content-Type: application/json
• X-Request-ID (UUID v4, for audit tracing)
• Signature (HMAC-SHA256 for webhook verification)

Aevum Zenth performs continuous vulnerability scanning, penetration testing, and runtime threat detection. Clients must report security vulnerabilities via our responsible disclosure portal within 24 hours of discovery.

6. Legal & Compliance Terms

By accessing the Aevum Zenth API, you agree to the Global API Service Agreement. Key clauses include:

1. Service Modification: Aevum Zenth may deprecate endpoints with 90 days notice. Breaking changes are versioned (e.g., /v3/ → /v4/).
2. Liability Cap: Maximum liability is limited to the annual fee paid by the consuming entity. Critical infrastructure endpoints carry separate indemnification terms.
3. Audit Rights: Enterprise and government clients grant Aevum Zenth rights to audit usage patterns for compliance and capacity planning.

7. Monitoring, Auditing & Enforcement

Every API transaction is logged with immutable audit trails. Logs include timestamp, client ID, endpoint, payload hash, latency, and response code. Logs are retained for 7 years to satisfy financial and regulatory requirements.

Automated enforcement triggers include:

• Rate limit violations → Auto-throttle with notification
• Anomalous traffic patterns → Temporary suspension + security review
• Policy violations → Immediate key revocation + legal escalation

8. Support & Escalation

API support is tiered based on your subscription level. All clients receive access to automated diagnostics, status pages, and community forums.

For emergency infrastructure incidents, contact api-ops@internal.aevumzenth or use the priority escalation webhook.