Secure AI Features — API Keys, JWT, and Rate Limiting in Spring Boot (2026)

#springboot #angular #ai #tutorial

Canonical URL: Republished from munonye.com. Full code on GitHub.

Spring Boot secure OpenAI API patterns for production AI features. Required reading after M7-A in AI Developer Tutorials.

Rules

API keys only in server env / vault
Angular sends JWT, not OpenAI keys
Rate limit per user/IP
Validate and sanitize all prompts

JWT-secured controller

@RestController
@RequestMapping("/api/chat")
public class ChatController {
  @PostMapping
  @PreAuthorize("isAuthenticated()")
  @RateLimiter(name = "chat")
  public ChatResponse chat(@RequestBody ChatRequest req, Authentication auth) {
    // log user id, not full prompt in prod
    return new ChatResponse(chatClient.prompt().user(req.message()).call().content());
  }
}