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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 or update variables of an in one atomic request. By default, each variable you send is created or overwritten, and variables you don’t mention stay as they are. So you can change one secret without resending the others.
  • --prune deletes every variable you didn’t send. --prune --variables='[]' removes them all.
  • kind defaults to writeonly, which can never be read back. Set "kind":"recoverable" so list-environment-variables can return the value.
Values are encrypted at rest.

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Usage

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Flags

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string
required
App ID or slug.
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string
required
Environment ID or slug.
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string
required
Project ID or slug. Both forms resolve to the same project.
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boolean
default:"false"
Delete every variable not present in --variables after the upsert.
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string
required
JSON array of at most 50 variables, each with key and value and optionally kind and description, for example [{"key":"TOKEN","value":"secret"}]. A key must be a POSIX shell name of at most 256 characters and may appear only once. A value is capped at 16384 UTF-8 bytes, and a description at 255 characters.

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Shared flags

Every unkey api command accepts these; CLI output and shared flags describes them in full.
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string
A JSON document sent as the request body instead of building it from the flags above. It is mutually exclusive with the request-building flags, and unknown fields are rejected locally. See Send a raw body.
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string
Root key for the request. Falls back to UNKEY_ROOT_KEY, then to the config file written by unkey auth login. See CLI authentication.
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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.
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string
default:"~/.unkey/config.toml"
Path of the TOML file that unkey auth login writes. Falls back to UNKEY_CONFIG.
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string
Output format. Falls back to UNKEY_OUTPUT. Set json to print the full response envelope (meta and data) for piping; any other value prints the request ID followed by data.

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Required permissions

Your root key needs one of:
  • environment.*.set_environment_variables (any environment)
  • environment.<environment_id>.set_environment_variables (a specific environment)
Without a matching permission the API answers 403 and the CLI prints Permission denied: followed by the detail. See Root key permissions for the full catalog.

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Examples

Set one variable:
Replace the whole set:
Send the request body as JSON:

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API endpoint

The command calls POST /v2/environments.setEnvironmentVariables and prints its response. The request fields carry the same names as the flags in camelCase, which is the shape --body expects.

Environment variables

Kinds, encryption, and how variables reach a deployment.
Last modified on September 29, 2026