Inspiration for the ApiKey resource implementation; thanks to original author martinsandstrom.

tastypie_ApiKey_Resource.py

from tastypie.exceptions import NotFound
from tastypie.resources import ModelResource
from tastypie.authentication import BasicAuthentication, ApiKeyAuthentication
from tastypie.models import ApiKey, create_api_key
from django.contrib.auth.models import User

# listen for post_save signal on User model & trigger a function to generate the API key
models.signals.post_save.connect(create_api_key, sender=User)

# callable that takes allowed methods for production but returns POST & GET verbs if testing w/ localhost or debug
allowed = lambda methods: ['post', 'get'] if settings.DEBUG and settings.LOCALHOST else methods

class ApiKeyResource(ModelResource):
    clasclass Meta:
        queryset = ApiKey.objects.all()
        resource_name = "api_key"

        # security & auth
        fields = ["key"]
        authorization = Authorization()
        authentication = MultiAuthentication(SessionAuthentication(), BasicAuthentication())

        # allowed request types
        list_allowed_methods = allowed([])
        detail_allowed_methods = ["get"]
        include_resource_uri = False

    def get_detail(self, request, **kwargs):
        if kwargs["pk"] != "auth":
            # only allow GET for detail view if route matches <resource>/auth/
            raise NotImplementedError("Resource not found")
        
        obj = ApiKey.objects.get(user=request.user)  # current user
        
        bundle = self.build_bundle(obj=obj, request=request)    # create bundle obj
        bundle = self.full_dehydrate(bundle)                    # deserialize fields
        bundle = self.alter_detail_data_to_serialize(request, bundle)
        
        # return properly formatted response of current users api key if they're authenticated
        return self.create_response(request, bundle)