Update Identity
Update an identity’s metadata and rate limits. Only specified fields are modified - others remain unchanged.
Perfect for subscription changes, plan upgrades, or updating user information. Changes take effect immediately.
Important Requires
identity.*.update_identitypermission Rate limit changes propagate within 30 seconds
Authorizations
Unkey uses bearer tokens for authentication. Public integrations use root keys, while the dashboard proxy uses short-lived JWTs. To authenticate, include the token in the Authorization header of each request:
Root keys have specific permissions attached to them, controlling what operations they can perform. Legacy permissions use tuple strings like api.*.create_key; resource permissions use Unkey Resource Names plus actions, like unkey:v1:ws_123:keyspaces/*#create_key.
Security best practices:
- Keep root keys secure and never expose them in client-side code
- Use different root keys for different environments
- Rotate keys periodically, especially after team member departures
- Create keys with minimal necessary permissions following least privilege principle
- Monitor key usage with audit logs.
Body
The ID of the identity to update. Accepts either the externalId (your system-generated identifier) or the identityId (internal identifier returned by the identity service).
1"user_123"
Replaces all existing metadata with this new metadata object. Omitting this field preserves existing metadata, while providing an empty object clears all metadata. Avoid storing sensitive data here as it's returned in verification responses. Large metadata objects increase verification latency and should stay under 10KB total size.
Replaces all existing identity rate limits with this complete list of rate limits. Omitting this field preserves existing rate limits, while providing an empty array removes all rate limits. These limits are shared across all keys belonging to this identity, preventing abuse through multiple keys. Rate limit changes take effect immediately but may take up to 30 seconds to propagate across all regions.
50Response
Identity successfully updated