Self-serve API keys

You can allow your customers to create and manage their own API keys directly in the self-serve portal for users and organizations.

Switch on self-serve API keys in Kinde

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1. Go to Settings > Environment > Self-serve portal.
2. Enable the API Keys option for the audience you want:
   • Users (B2C)
   • Organizations (B2B)
3. Select Save. An API keys navigation item will appear in the portal for your customers.

Self-serve portal details

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• Self-serve portal for orgs
• Self-serve portal for users

Deep link to API keys from your app

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Most SDKs provide a PortalLink helper that generates a one-time portal URL and redirects the user. Use the subNav parameter to open the API Keys section directly.

React

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import {PortalLink} from "@kinde-oss/kinde-auth-react";

// Opens the organization level API Keys section in the self-serve portal
<PortalLink subNav="organization_api_keys">Manage API keys</PortalLink>;

Next.js

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import {PortalLink} from "@kinde-oss/kinde-auth-nextjs/components";

// Opens the API Keys section in the self-serve portal
<PortalLink subNav="user_api_keys">Manage API keys</PortalLink>;

Without an SDK (server-side)

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If you generate portal links using an API on your server, include a sub_nav field to deep link to API Keys.

{
  "user_id": "kp_abc123", // or organization_code for org-level links
  "return_url": "https://yourapp.com/account",
  "sub_nav": "api_keys"
}

Tips for setting up

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• Use subNav (camelCase) in SDK helpers and sub_nav (snake_case) in API payloads.
• For organization-level experiences, pass organization context according to your integration pattern.

Customer portal experience

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After enabling the API key function for customers, an API Keys item shows in the portal navigation where customers can create, view, rotate and revoke keys.

Access control for self-serve organization level API keys

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There are system level permissions which Kinde provides which you can assign to your custom roles.

• read:org:authentication - The user is able to view API keys created by the organization
• write:org:authentication - The user is able to create, rotate and revoke API keys for the organization.

When assigning permissions to roles, our recommendation is to only give the minimum permissions required for someone to do their job. It is always better to be more granular in this area.