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You need a root key with the permissions listed on this page. Create one in the dashboard under Settings > Root Keys. 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 unkey api command takes these. See CLI output and shared flags.
string
Root key used for the request. Falls back to UNKEY_ROOT_KEY, then to the key stored by unkey auth login.
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 config file written by unkey auth login. Falls back to UNKEY_CONFIG.
string
Output format. Falls back to UNKEY_OUTPUT. json prints the full response. Any other value prints the request ID and data.
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

identity.*.create_identity. See Root key permissions.

Examples

Create
Create with a shared rate limit
Or send the whole request as JSON:
Raw body
Last modified on September 29, 2026