Public keys

Navigate to the 'Public keys' section of the Settings to create, register and manage your public keys.

Public keys offer a secure way to authenticate with Encord without requiring a user login and password. In particular, this is required when using the Encord SDK or Encord API. Once you have registered your public key, you can use the SDK or API to create, manage and interrogate projects, datasets and labels programmatically.

Read more about public-key cryptography here.

Set up public key authentication

A public-private key pair is required for authentication. Encord lets you seamlessly:

• Add an existing public key to Encord.
• Generate a new public/private key pair and add it to Encord.

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Caution

If using an existing private key, please assure it isn't password protected. All private keys generated on the Encord platform as described below [our documentation] will not be password protected by default.

1. Click the New Key button to add or generate a new key.

2. Enter a title for your public key in the first field, and paste your public key in the second field. The Create button will become available once both fields have been populated.

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Tip

Click Generate key pair to generate a new public/private key pair. The public key field will be automatically populated, while a .txt containing your corresponding private key will be downloaded.

3. Click Create to add your public key to Encord. It will now be listed showing the key's name, as well as a signature that serves as a unique identifier.

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Note

While key names don't have to be unique, the keys themselves do. Attempting to upload a duplicate key will result in an error.

Authenticate with your private key

Once your public key has been registered with Encord, use your private key as your credentials when using the SDK and API. Please check the SDK or API documentation on how to authenticate with each respectively.