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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 a , the top-level Compute container that groups and their deployments under a slug that is unique in your workspace. The slug is what you pass to later --project flags. It must be unique in the workspace, or you get a 409 conflict. Projects are described in Projects, apps, and environments. Creating a project needs an active Compute plan. Without one the API answers 412 with The workspace has no active Compute plan. See Compute plans.

Usage

Flags

string
required
Human-readable name for the project, shown in the dashboard. 1 to 256 characters.
string
required
Stable project slug, unique within the workspace. 3 to 255 characters matching ^[a-zA-Z0-9_-]+$. Used in --project flags and in generated deployment hostnames.

Shared flags

Every resource command accepts these; CLI output and shared flags describes them in full.
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.
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.

Required permissions

Your root key needs project.*.create_project. 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.

Examples

Create a project:
Send the request body as JSON:

API endpoint

The command calls POST /v2/projects.createProject and prints its response. The request fields carry the same names as the flags in camelCase, which is the shape --body expects.
Last modified on October 28, 2026