Does that imply I need to give you my username and password?

If you're using your own account, you can just use your own authentication cookies, but they do expire. If you're providing these functionalities for others' accounts and if you're ok with users logging in every time for usage, then no. If you'd prefer maintaining the log-in session for others, then unfortunately yes. I know this isn't ideal, but this is the unfortunate nature of unofficial APIs.