CLI

The Unkey CLI gives you direct access to the Unkey API from your terminal. Create and manage API keys, configure rate limits, set permissions, and query analytics, all without leaving the command line.

The CLI is early and provided on a best-effort basis. There are no breaking change guarantees for commands, flags, or output format. The underlying API is versioned and stable.

Installation

npm
GitHub Releases

npm install -g unkey

Download the latest binary for your platform from GitHub Releases.

# macOS (Apple Silicon)
curl -L https://github.com/unkeyed/unkey/releases/latest/download/unkey_darwin_arm64 -o unkey
chmod +x unkey
sudo mv unkey /usr/local/bin/

Authentication

Before using the CLI, authenticate with your root key:

unkey auth login

This stores your key at ~/.unkey/config.toml. All subsequent commands use it automatically. You can also pass a key per-command or via environment variable:

# Flag
unkey api keys create-key --root-key=unkey_xxx --api-id=api_123

# Environment variable
export UNKEY_ROOT_KEY=unkey_xxx
unkey api keys create-key --api-id=api_123

Usage

All API operations live under the unkey api command, organized by resource:

unkey api <resource> <action> [flags]

Resources

Resource	Description
`apis`	Create, get, delete API namespaces and list their keys
`keys`	Create, verify, update, delete keys and manage their permissions and roles
`identities`	Create, get, update, delete identities for grouping keys
`permissions`	Create, get, delete permissions and roles
`ratelimit`	Apply rate limits and manage overrides
`analytics`	Query key verification data with SQL

Examples

Create an API and issue a key:

unkey api apis create-api --name=payment-service-prod
unkey api keys create-key --api-id=api_1234abcd --name='Production Key' --enabled

Verify a key:

unkey api keys verify-key --key=sk_1234abcdef

Set up rate limiting:

unkey api ratelimit limit --namespace=api.requests --identifier=user_123 --limit=100 --duration=60000

Query analytics:

unkey api analytics get-verifications --query="SELECT COUNT(*) as total FROM key_verifications_v1 WHERE outcome = 'VALID' AND time >= now() - INTERVAL 7 DAY"

Manage permissions:

unkey api permissions create-permission --name=documents.read --slug=documents-read
unkey api keys add-permissions --key-id=key_1234abcd --permissions=documents.read,documents.write

Output

By default, the CLI prints the request ID with latency, followed by the response data:

req_2c9a0jf23l4k567 (took 45ms)

{
  "id": "api_1234abcd",
  "name": "payment-service-prod"
}

For scripting, use --output=json to get the raw API response envelope (meta + data) as JSON on stdout:

unkey api apis create-api --name=my-api --output=json | jq '.data.id'

Global Flags

Every command accepts these flags:

Flag	Description
`--root-key`	Override the root key (also: `UNKEY_ROOT_KEY` env var)
`--api-url`	Override the API base URL (default: `https://api.unkey.com`)
`--config`	Path to config file (default: `~/.unkey/config.toml`)
`--output`	Output format. Use `json` for raw JSON

Help

Every command has built-in help with descriptions, flag details, and examples:

unkey --help
unkey api --help
unkey api keys --help
unkey api keys create-key --help

Getting Started

Platform

Build & Deploy

Networking

Observability

Security

Keyspaces

AI Code Gen

Audit Logs

CLI

Errors

CLI

Installation

Authentication

Usage

Resources

Examples

Output

Global Flags

Help

​Installation

​Authentication

​Usage

​Resources

​Examples

​Output

​Global Flags

​Help

Installation

Authentication

Usage

Resources

Examples

Output

Global Flags

Help