Look up key details by providing the full API key string. Use this to identify an unknown key, inspect its permissions, check expiration, or verify it belongs to the expected API. The key is matched by its hash, so you must provide the complete key exactly as issued — even minor modifications will cause a not found error. Important: Never log, cache, or store API keys in your system as they provide full access to user resources. Required permissions:Documentation Index
Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://unkey.com/docs/llms.txt
Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
api.*.read_key(to read keys from any API)api.<api_id>.read_key(to read keys from a specific API)
See the API reference for the full HTTP endpoint documentation.
Usage
Flags
The complete API key string, including any prefix. Must be provided exactly as issued — even minor modifications will cause a not found error. Between 1 and 512 characters.
Global Flags
| Flag | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
--root-key | string | Override root key ($UNKEY_ROOT_KEY) |
--api-url | string | Override API base URL (default: https://api.unkey.com) |
--config | string | Path to config file (default: ~/.unkey/config.toml) |
--output | string | Output format. Use json for raw JSON |
Examples
Output
Default output shows the request ID with latency, followed by the key details:--output=json, the full response envelope is returned:

