---
title: "AccessMethod"
description: "one access method for one source: its kind, transport, credential kind, proxy policy, depth, rate, politeness, cost and contract"
section: concepts
address: /concepts/accessmethod
contract: 0476e35e6e275db5
---

# AccessMethod

one access method for one source: its kind, transport, credential kind, proxy policy, depth, rate, politeness, cost and contract

[figure: AccessMethod is a row at platform scope. The drawing shows its fields and the objects that they point at.]

| property | value |
|---|---|
| kind | row |
| scope | platform |
| key | the source and the kind |
| store | postgres |
| family | sources |



## Fields


| field | type | required | note |
|---|---|---|---|
| `name` | `text` | yes | the way's name: its source and its kind, as one name, which a job and a backfill name it by |
| `source` | [Source](/concepts/source) | yes |  |
| `kind` | `one of a bulk file \| an official interface \| a public page \| a licensed file \| a signed-in session \| a person's own browser` | yes | the method, as the field says it |
| `transport` | [TransportKind](/concepts/transportkind) | yes | one shared client; a connector never speaks it |
| `credential_kind` | `one of none \| an API key \| a bearer token \| OAuth 2 \| OAuth 1 \| basic \| a signed request \| a service account \| a client certificate \| an SSH key \| a webhook secret \| a signed-in identity \| the person's own signed-in session` | yes | the person's own signed-in session is the credential of a person's own browser: the capture extension reads under it as that person, and it is never lent (18 §2.2); a signed-in identity is a held identity that the platform keeps |
| `proxy_policy` | [ProxyPolicy](/concepts/proxypolicy) | no |  |
| `depth` | `text` | yes |  |
| `rate` | [RateBound](/concepts/ratebound) | yes | numeric, or the way is unplannable |
| `contract` | [WayContract](/concepts/waycontract) | yes |  |
| `units_yielded` | [SourceObject](/concepts/sourceobject) | yes |  |
| `addressed_by` | `one of a channel \| a query \| a file` | yes | how the way names what it reads, the addressing that bounds each fetch (18 §2.1): a channel is a standing place that the source publishes into, such as a community, an account, a feed or a page that a person opens, and the way reads what appears there; a query is a question that the source returns results for, such as a search or an interface call with filters; a file is a whole file or dump that the way names by its address, such as a monthly dump or a held catalogue |
| `coverage_window` | [Window](/concepts/window) | no |  |
| `legality` | `one of allowed \| not allowed \| paid \| unknown` | yes | follows the legality tier of the way's source: unknown while that tier is unknown, rejected or unusable, and not allowed while the tier is not allowed; a way with no row is not allowed |
| `limits` | `{text:count}` | yes | per-call limits as data |
| `host` | `one of the acquisition system \| the connector host \| the capture extension` | yes |  |



## Routes that use it
No route takes or returns AccessMethod directly. The record holds it, and the objects that point at it reach it.