create-api

Create an API namespace for organizing keys by environment, service, or product. Use this to separate production from development keys, isolate different services, or manage multiple products. Each API gets a unique identifier and dedicated infrastructure for secure key operations. Important: API names must be unique within your workspace and cannot be changed after creation. Required permissions:

api.*.create_api (to create APIs in any workspace)

See the API reference for the full HTTP endpoint documentation.

Usage

unkey api apis create-api [flags]

Flags

string

required

Unique identifier for this API namespace within your workspace. Use descriptive names like payment-service-prod or user-api-dev to clearly identify purpose and environment. Must be 3-255 characters, start with a letter, and contain only letters, numbers, dots, hyphens, and underscores.

Global Flags

Flag	Type	Description
`--root-key`	string	Override root key (`$UNKEY_ROOT_KEY`)
`--api-url`	string	Override API base URL (default: `https://api.unkey.com`)
`--config`	string	Path to config file (default: `~/.unkey/config.toml`)
`--output`	string	Output format. Use `json` for raw JSON
`--body`	string	Send this JSON string as the request body. You cannot combine it with request-building flags.

Examples

unkey api apis create-api --name=payment-service-prod

unkey api apis create-api --name=user-api-dev --output=json

API_ID=$(unkey api apis create-api --name=my-api --output=json | jq -r '.data.id')
unkey api keys create-key --api-id=$API_ID

Output

Default output shows the request ID, followed by the created API:

req_2c9a0jf23l4k567

{
  "id": "api_1234abcd",
  "name": "payment-service-prod"
}

With --output=json, the full response envelope is returned:

{
  "meta": {
    "requestId": "req_2c9a0jf23l4k567"
  },
  "data": {
    "id": "api_1234abcd",
    "name": "payment-service-prod"
  }
}

Getting Started

Platform

Build & Deploy

Networking

Observability

CLI

Security

Keyspaces

AI Code Gen

Audit Logs

CLI

Errors

Usage

Flags

Global Flags

Examples

Output

​Usage

​Flags

​Global Flags

​Examples

​Output

Usage

Flags

Global Flags

Examples

Output