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.
POST /v2/keys.getKey. See Looking up keys.
Usage
Flags
Include the plaintext key. Works only for keys created with
--recoverable and needs decrypt_key. Fails with 412 unless the keyspace has key encryption turned on, which only we can do, through a support request.Shared flags
Every resource command takes these. See CLI output and shared flags.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.Base URL of the API. Falls back to
UNKEY_API_BASE_URL. You don’t normally need to set it.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.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.Print the full response as JSON. Takes precedence over a valid
--output or UNKEY_OUTPUT value.Send this JSON as the whole request body instead of using the command’s flags. You can’t combine it with them.
Required permissions
api.*.read_key or api.<apiId>.read_key. --decrypt also needs api.*.decrypt_key or api.<apiId>.decrypt_key. See Root key permissions.
Examples
Read a key
Read a recoverable key's plaintext
Raw body