Create an API key

You create API keys yourself, in your account settings, on the website or in the app. This page walks through both, then shows how to store the key so tools can use it without it ever appearing in your code.

Before you start

• You need an active Ur Next Door account. Any plan works, including Free.
• You can hold up to 5 active keys at a time. Revoked and expired keys do not count toward the 5.
• Decide which tool will use the key. Create one key per tool (for example one for Claude Code and one for Zapier), so you can revoke one without breaking the others.

Create a key on the website

1. Sign in at urnextdoor.com.
2. Open Settings, then the API keys tab. The direct address is https://urnextdoor.com/settings/api-keys.
3. Select Create API key and fill in the dialog:
   • Name. Something that tells you later where the key lives, for example Claude Code on my laptop or Zapier: weekly poll.
   • This key may. Tick only what the tool needs: Create content (scope content), Upload images (media), Manage scheduled (schedule) and Read lookups (read). All four are ticked to start with. For an AI agent that writes posts with images, keep Create content, Upload images and Read lookups; keep Manage scheduled if it should also move or cancel scheduled items. See Scopes.
   • Expires. 30 days, 90 days (the default), 1 year, or never. Shorter is safer; you can always create a new key later.
4. Select Create key. The dialog changes to Your new API key and shows the full key once, starting with und_sk_.
5. Select Copy next to the key and keep it somewhere safe for the next step, then select Done. If you try to close the dialog without copying, it asks you to confirm. Ur Next Door stores only a fingerprint (a hash) of the key, so nobody, including support, can show it to you again.

After you create it, the key appears in your list with its name, the first characters (for example und_sk_7Hq2x), the last four characters, its scopes, its status, when it was created, when it was last used and when it expires. We also email you whenever a new key is created on your account, so you notice a key you did not make.

Create a key in the app

1. Open the Ur Next Door app and sign in.
2. Go to Settings and open the API keys tab.
3. Fill in the same three fields: Name, Scopes and Expiry.
4. Create the key and copy it with the copy control. It is shown only once.
5. Send it to the computer that will use it in a way only you can read, for example a password manager. Avoid pasting it into chats, emails or notes apps that sync to other people.

Store the key in UND_API_KEY

Every example in these docs reads the key from an environment variable named UND_API_KEY. That keeps the key out of your code, your prompts and your shell history.

macOS and Linux

# Paste the key when asked. It is not shown on screen and not saved in your history.
read -rs UND_API_KEY && export UND_API_KEY

# Check that it is set by printing only its first 12 characters
echo "${UND_API_KEY:0:12}..."

This lasts until you close the terminal. To keep it, add a line export UND_API_KEY="und_sk_..." to your shell profile (~/.zshrc on macOS, ~/.bashrc on most Linux systems) with a text editor, and make the file readable only by you with chmod 600 ~/.zshrc. Open a new terminal afterwards.

Windows

1. Press the Windows key and search for Edit environment variables for your account.
2. Under User variables, choose New.
3. Set the name to UND_API_KEY and paste the key as the value. Save.
4. Close and reopen your terminal, editor or AI tool so it picks up the variable.

In PowerShell you can set it for the current window only:

$env:UND_API_KEY = Read-Host -Prompt "Paste your Ur Next Door API key"

In a project folder

Many tools read a .env file in the project folder:

UND_API_KEY=und_sk_...

Add .env to your .gitignore before you create the file, so the key is never committed.

Check that the key works

GET /api/v1/me works with any valid key and tells you which member and key you are using:

curl "https://urnextdoor.com/api/v1/me" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $UND_API_KEY"

const res = await fetch("https://urnextdoor.com/api/v1/me", {
  headers: {
    Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.UND_API_KEY}`,
  },
});
console.log(res.status, await res.json());

import os

import requests

api_key = os.environ["UND_API_KEY"]

response = requests.get(
    "https://urnextdoor.com/api/v1/me",
    headers={
        "Authorization": f"Bearer {api_key}",
    },
    timeout=30,
)
print(response.status_code, response.json())

<?php
$apiKey = getenv('UND_API_KEY');

$ch = curl_init('https://urnextdoor.com/api/v1/me');
curl_setopt_array($ch, [
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
        'Authorization: Bearer ' . $apiKey,
    ],
]);
$body = curl_exec($ch);
$status = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_RESPONSE_CODE);

echo $status, PHP_EOL, $body, PHP_EOL;

Sample response: 200 OK

{
  "ok": true,
  "user": {
    "id": 7,
    "username": "aarav",
    "display_name": "Aarav",
    "plan": "free",
    "profile_url": "https://urnextdoor.com/users/aarav"
  },
  "key": {
    "id": 3,
    "name": "Claude Code",
    "prefix": "und_sk_7Hq2x",
    "scopes": [
      "content",
      "media",
      "schedule",
      "read"
    ],
    "created_at": "2026-10-15T09:00:00Z",
    "expires_at": "2027-01-13T09:00:00Z"
  },
  "request_id": "9f8e7d6c5b4a3921"
}

A 401 with missing_api_key means the header was not sent (usually the variable is empty in that terminal). A 401 with invalid_api_key means the key was mistyped, revoked or expired.

Manage, rotate and revoke keys

• Revoke a key from the API keys tab whenever you stop using it, or at once if you think it leaked. It stops working immediately.
• Rotate by creating a new key, updating UND_API_KEY where it is used, checking GET /api/v1/me, then revoking the old key.
• Recent requests on the same tab lists each recent call: time, method, route, status, error code, the key prefix, the client and how long it took. Use it to confirm a tool is doing what you expect.

More in Keep your API key safe.

Frequently asked questions

Next steps

• Make your first request with your new key.
• Connect it to an AI tool: Claude Code, Codex CLI or ChatGPT.
• Read Keep your API key safe.