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Create a root key with the permissions listed on this page under Root Keys in the dashboard sidebar. CLI commands can instead use a session from unkey login with the required permissions. See Permission reference for every permission.
Create an identity. Keys linked to it by externalId share its metadata and rate limits, so a user with several keys is rate limited as one. Calls POST /v2/identities.createIdentity. See Identities.

Usage

Flags

string
required
Your identifier for the user, organization, or tenant. Unique per workspace. Reusing one returns 409 err:unkey:data:identity_already_exists.
string
JSON object stored on the identity and returned when any of its keys is verified.
string
JSON array of rate limits shared by every key of the identity, each with name, limit, duration in milliseconds, and autoApply.

Shared flags

Every resource command takes these. See CLI output and shared flags.
string
Root key used for the request. Falls back to UNKEY_ROOT_KEY, then stored credentials, including a CLI session. See CLI authentication for the full precedence order.
string
default:"https://api.unkey.com"
Base URL of the API. Falls back to UNKEY_API_BASE_URL. You don’t normally need to set it.
string
default:"~/.unkey/config.toml"
Path of the TOML config file. Falls back to UNKEY_CONFIG. An explicit --config takes precedence over a stored CLI session. Browser login stores a session, not a root key in this file. See CLI authentication.
enum
default:"human"
Use human (default) for name-first summary tables and single-response trees, or json for the unchanged full response envelope, including all fields and pagination. Trees wrap long values without truncation. Terminal tables use relative timestamps and may shorten display names and descriptions, but never identifiers, slugs, or credentials. Redirected human output keeps complete values and uses RFC3339 UTC timestamps. Falls back to UNKEY_OUTPUT; other values are rejected. --json also selects JSON output. Add --debug to print the request ID to stderr. See Output formats.
boolean
Print the successful response’s request ID to stderr, separate from stdout.
boolean
Print the full response as JSON. Takes precedence over a valid --output or UNKEY_OUTPUT value.
string
Send this JSON as the whole request body instead of using the command’s flags. You can’t combine it with them.

Required permissions

Your root key needs unkey:v1:<workspaceId>:projects/<projectId>/identities/*#write for the workspace’s default project. See Root key permissions.

Examples

Create
Create with a shared rate limit
Or send the whole request as JSON:
Raw body
Last modified on November 11, 2026