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People, API keys and service accounts

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When you finish this page, your deployment's people have their own sign-ins, roles and API keys. Your pipelines have service accounts, with only what they need. You can also remove someone in one step.

With authorization on, a tenant has people, each with their own sign-in and API keys. It also has service accounts, which act for a pipeline or an app. What each may do is kept in OpenFGA, so turn authorization on first. A tenant admin adds them. The first one is the runtime's seed user: KINDGI_SEED_USER_ID, or the API token's user. The runtime makes the seed user a tenant admin at every start.

  • Authorization is on for your runtime (Run with authorization).
  • You're a tenant admin, such as the seed user.
  • The kindgi CLI reaches your runtime as you, with the runtime's address exported as KINDGI_API_URL and your API key as KINDGI_API_TOKEN. The curl examples read the same two variables.
  • For kindgi commands: Kindgi 0.1's CLI, which runs from any folder as npx --yes @kindgi/cli@0.1 (Install). Inside a pack project, pnpm exec kindgi runs the project's pinned CLI instead.
  • A tenant admin does everything in the tenant. They add and remove people, make keys for anyone, and change tenant-wide settings: providers, policies, signing keys, deployments and identity providers.
  • A tenant member reads the tenant's settings, not its projects: its providers, policies, adapters, signing keys and deployments. Everyone you add is one.
  • A role on a project gives the work in it: its agents, runs and conversations. The roles are owner, admin, editor and viewer (Project memberships).
  • A service account has only what it's granted. It isn't a tenant member unless you make it one.
  • A capability is needed on top of the role to trust signing keys (signing-keys:write) and to write secrets and environment values (secrets:write, env:write and the like). A tenant's first admin, the person it was created with on a runtime serving many tenants, holds every one but secrets:reveal, and no other person holds any. A key carries those it was made with (API keys).

Lists hold only what the caller may read.

Adding a person gives them a place in the tenant, so they can sign in and get keys:

Terminal window
npx --yes @kindgi/cli@0.1 people add --name="Sam Rivera" --email=sam@acme.example
  • --name is their name, as people see it.
  • --email is the email they sign in with. It's unique among the tenant's people.

It prints the new person, and says on stderr what being added gives them:

{
"userId": "002ee784-0b05-47fb-918e-34d192be94c1",
"displayName": "Sam Rivera",
"email": "sam@acme.example"
}
Added to the tenant: they can read its settings. Give them a project role to work on its agents and runs, then their first key: kindgi tokens create --for=user:002ee784-0b05-47fb-918e-34d192be94c1

An email another person already has is refused with 409 identity-user-email-taken.

Then give them a role on a project. A tenant admin, or an admin of that project, adds them by email or by id:

Terminal window
curl -X POST "$KINDGI_API_URL/v1/projects/<project-id>/memberships" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $KINDGI_API_TOKEN" -H 'content-type: application/json' \
-d '{"email":"sam@acme.example","role":"editor"}'
  • <project-id> is the project's id.
  • email names the person. userId names them by id instead.
  • role is their role on the project: owner, admin, editor or viewer.

The email matches whatever its case, and the answer names the person. Here a project admin added a viewer as GUS@acme.test:

{"projectId":"ea6e0f95-301e-4017-b2d4-82590cc6ec64","userId":"74e4beb8-6aa4-47ef-9f2a-e0245ee62343","role":"viewer"}

Someone who isn't one of the tenant's people, or who was removed, isn't added:

{"error":{"code":"identity-user-not-found","message":"No one with email \"outsider@example.com\" is a member of this tenant","requestId":"req-304865e8-9499-48cd-afca-2f8c87e8f05d"}}

In the TypeScript client, it's projects.memberships.add(projectId, { email, role }). They can then sign in to the console, or use a key you make them.

A tenant admin can do everything in the tenant. grant makes someone one, and ungrant takes it away:

Terminal window
npx --yes @kindgi/cli@0.1 people grant <user-id> --tenant-admin
npx --yes @kindgi/cli@0.1 people ungrant <user-id> --tenant-admin

<user-id> is the person's id, as kindgi people add printed it. The grant holds from their next request.

kindgi people grants <user-id> --table lists what someone holds, as granted directly: tenant admin, tenant member, project and team roles, and a reviewer role. What a team or an org gives isn't expanded. Sam, newly added, holds only the tenant membership:

WHERE ROLE
────── ───────────────────────────
tenant member (reads its settings)

Everyone's grants come in one read: the people list takes include=grants. In TypeScript, that's users.list({ includeGrants: true }), and in Python identity.users.list(include="grants"). Each person then carries grants, the same shape as their own grants read. A runtime without an authorization store lists the people without them.

Taking tenant admin away is refused in two cases:

  • 409 last-tenant-admin: they're the only one. Make someone else a tenant admin first.
  • 409 seed-user-admin: they're the seed user, whom the runtime makes a tenant admin again at every start. Unset KINDGI_SEED_USER_ID and restart the runtime first.

If the first admin stops being a tenant admin, the capabilities they held are revoked, and the audit entry lists them. A key acts as the person or service account it's for, whoever made it. So their own keys keep their capabilities, but until the first admin is a tenant admin again, those keys can't trust signing keys, and can't change secrets or environment values where they aren't an admin. A key they made for another tenant admin, or for a service account that's one, keeps working.

Making the first admin a tenant admin again doesn't give their own capabilities back, so the console offers them none. A key that carries capabilities makes new keys with them (kindgi tokens create --capability=<cap>, in API keys): their own keys, once they're an admin again, or one made for another tenant admin or a service account that's one. Before you revoke the last key that carries a capability, or let it expire, make its replacement with it. If the first admin doesn't hold a capability and no key in the tenant carries it, contact support.

Make the key that deploys, from CI or anywhere else, for a service account that's a tenant admin, not for the first admin. It keeps working if the first admin stops being a tenant admin or is removed, and as a tenant admin, whoever holds it can make new keys with its capabilities:

Terminal window
npx --yes @kindgi/cli@0.1 service-accounts create acme-deploy --description="Deploys" --tenant-admin
npx --yes @kindgi/cli@0.1 tokens create --for=sa:<service-account-id> --role=admin --capability=signing-keys:write --capability=secrets:write --label=deploy --expires=90d

GET /v1/identity/me/permissions answers what you, the caller, may do, with your API key's limits applied. Unlike grants, it counts every way you hold a role.

  • tenant: {admin, member}.
  • reviewer: when you're a reviewer, it has:
    • your role;
    • your reviewer id, which an approval assigned to you names in assignedTo, and which is absent without a roster row;
    • the approvals' roles you may decide: your rank and those under it;
    • whether you can decide at all.
  • key: when you call with an API key, its role and the project it's limited to.
  • tokenCapabilities: what your token itself carries for secret, env and signing-key writes. A sign-in session carries the ones you hold as a person. A tenant's first admin, the person it was created with, holds every one but secrets:reveal; no one else holds any. An API key carries those it was minted with, none by default, and only ones its minter holds.
  • projects: each project you may read, with your highest role in it and every way you hold one (via):
    • direct, or through a team, with since when the runtime keeps it;
    • org-admin, as an admin of the org it sits in;
    • tenant-admin.
  • orgs and teams: your own, with your role in each.
  • capabilities: what each project role allows on the project and on each kind of object in it, read from the runtime's authorization model. Your project role's entry is what you may do there.
  • readOnlyNotice: the line the console shows someone who may only view a project, when a tenant admin set one. It's in the tenant config, kind: 'config', key console.readOnlyNotice, plain text on one line, at most 280 characters.

A key limited to a project sees that project alone. A member key is never a tenant admin. You see only what you may read: no project you can't read, and no one else's role.

The console hides actions by it (The console, by role). The server still checks every call.

On a runtime without an authorization store, it answers 501 permissions-unsupported. In the TypeScript and Python clients, it's client.identity.me.permissions().

Everyone can make their own keys, for the API, the CLI and the SDKs:

Terminal window
npx --yes @kindgi/cli@0.1 tokens create --label=laptop --expires=30d
  • --label is a name for the key, to tell your keys apart.
  • --expires is when it stops working: 30d, 12h, 90m or a date. A key without it doesn't expire.

The secret is printed once, there. Store it, because nothing shows it again.

A key can't outlive the key that makes it. Made with a key that expires, the new key's --expires must be no later than that key's. A later one, or none, is refused with 403 token-expiry-exceeds-minter, naming the latest date allowed. The same holds in a console signed in with a key. These aren't limited this way:

  • the deployment's token;
  • a key without an expiry;
  • a console signed in through SSO, a social sign-in or an emailed link.

Make longer-lived keys with one of those, such as the 90-day key in Service accounts.

  • For someone else, as a tenant admin only: --for=user:<user-id> or --for=sa:<service-account-id>.
  • --role=member, the default, takes no admin action on the tenant, even for a tenant admin. A project admin's member key still manages that project's members. --role=admin is made only by a tenant admin, and only for a tenant admin. For anyone else, it's refused with 403 role-exceeds-principal.
  • --project=<project-id> limits the key to one project. A request that names another project is refused with 403 key-project-mismatch.
  • --capability=<cap>, repeatable, puts a capability on the key, such as signing-keys:write or secrets:write (Who can do what). You can give only those you hold, as tokenCapabilities lists them: another is refused with 403, naming it. The key uses them only as far as its role goes: trusting signing keys takes --role=admin.

A tenant admin made Sam's first key:

Terminal window
npx --yes @kindgi/cli@0.1 tokens create --for=user:<user-id> --label=laptop --expires=30d
{
"meta": {
"id": "16979e65-a65d-46aa-a348-1b64d1c7d41f",
"principal": {
"kind": "user",
"id": "002ee784-0b05-47fb-918e-34d192be94c1"
},
"role": "member",
"capabilities": [],
"label": "laptop",
"createdBy": "user:11111111-3333-4333-8444-000000000402",
"createdAt": "2026-10-09T12:20:34.217Z",
"expiresAt": "2026-11-08T12:20:34.178Z"
},
"secret": "kgi_ak_…"
}
⚠ The secret of key 16979e65-a65d-46aa-a348-1b64d1c7d41f is shown once, above: store it now.
Excerpt
Terminal window
npx --yes @kindgi/cli@0.1 tokens list --table
ID FOR ROLE PROJECT LABEL CREATED EXPIRES REVOKED LAST USED
──────────────────────────────────── ───────────────────────────────────────── ────── ─────── ────── ──────────────────────── ──────────────────────── ─────── ─────────
16979e65-a65d-46aa-a348-1b64d1c7d41f user:002ee784-0b05-47fb-918e-34d192be94c1 member laptop 2026-10-09T12:20:34.217Z 2026-11-08T12:20:34.178Z

kindgi tokens list lists your keys, and --table prints them as a table. A tenant admin sees everyone's, and --for=user:<id> narrows it to one person's. Someone else's key reads as 404. kindgi tokens revoke <token-id> refuses the key from its next request on, with 401.

A service account is for a pipeline or an app. It has no sign-in, only keys, and only the grants you give it:

Terminal window
npx --yes @kindgi/cli@0.1 service-accounts create acme-ci --description="Deploys from CI" --project=<project-id>:editor
  • acme-ci is the account's name.
  • --description says what it's for.
  • --project=<project-id>:<role> gives it a role on a project. Repeat it for more projects.
{
"serviceAccountId": "04da5350-4207-4563-a4f9-c3c3463f33cf",
"name": "acme-ci",
"description": "Deploys from CI",
"grants": [
{
"kind": "project",
"projectId": "211244ea-cdac-45e5-be8c-30a3e0bc42f7",
"role": "editor"
}
],
"createdBy": "user:11111111-3333-4333-8444-000000000402",
"createdAt": "2026-10-09T12:20:35.334Z"
}

Then make it a key:

Terminal window
npx --yes @kindgi/cli@0.1 tokens create --for=sa:<service-account-id> --label=ci --expires=90d

<service-account-id> is the serviceAccountId that create printed. Its grants are written before create answers, so its first key works at once. You can grant --tenant-admin, --tenant-member and --project=<id>:<role>, now or later with kindgi service-accounts grant and ungrant.

Give --tenant-member only to an account whose job reads the tenant's settings. Without it, such a read is refused, and the refusal says how to grant it.

kindgi service-accounts unregister <service-account-id> takes its grants away, and its keys stop working.

Only a tenant admin lists them. Anyone else gets:

{"error":{"code":"permission-denied","message":"Only a tenant admin lists the tenant's people","requestId":"req-6f9ecda9-4a1d-4ef4-83a8-c91d5c78e47f"}}

A person's record and sessions are for a tenant admin, or that person.

Removing a person ends all their access at once:

Terminal window
npx --yes @kindgi/cli@0.1 people remove <user-id>
{
"user": {
"userId": "002ee784-0b05-47fb-918e-34d192be94c1",
"tenantId": "0b9f4c1e-4444-4a2b-8c3d-000000000402",
"primaryEmail": "sam@acme.example",
"displayName": "Sam Rivera",
"createdAt": "2026-10-09T12:20:33.577Z",
"unregisteredAt": "2026-10-09T12:20:36.482Z"
},
"keysRevoked": 1,
"sessionsRevoked": 0,
"grantsRemoved": 1
}
Removed Sam Rivera: 1 key(s) and 0 session(s) revoked, 1 role(s) and membership(s) taken away.

In one step, before it answers, their API keys are revoked, their sessions end, and every grant, membership and capability is taken away. The next request with Sam's key:

{"error":{"code":"auth-missing","message":"Bearer token is not recognized","requestId":"req-ea8f3a9a-f1df-4365-9f7c-7bab23beea86"}}

That's a 401. Their record stays, so runs, approvals and the audit trail still say who they were. Adding their email again makes a new person, with nothing granted.

It's refused for yourself and for the seed user, with identity-user-unregister-refused, and for the only tenant admin, with last-tenant-admin. Removed people are left out of lists. kindgi people list --include-removed shows them too.

  • API keys lists your keys, and a tenant admin's lists everyone's. Create a key makes one for you, with its role, project and expiry. A tenant admin can make one for a person or a service account too. The secret shows once, with a Copy button.

    When you hold capabilities, What it can change offers them, none ticked: Trust signing keys, Store secrets, Rotate secrets, Revoke secrets, Revoke secrets for good, Read secret values and Change environment variables, each with its name, such as signing-keys:write. A key that trusts signing keys is an Admin key, under How far it goes, with Trust signing keys ticked.

    The API keys page: one key, labelled laptop, acting as Sam Rivera with the member role, never used, expiring a month after it was made, with a Revoke button.

  • Service accounts, for tenant admins: create one with its grants, change them, make it a key, or unregister it.

    The Service accounts page: acme-ci, "Deploys from CI", editor on the Default project, with no active keys yet.

A project you have no role on shows No access, with the projects you can open.

People, for tenant admins, lists the tenant's people: each one's access in words, such as "reads the tenant's settings, viewer on Support, member of team Support crew, standard reviewer", their active keys, when they were last active, and when they were added. Access is what each was granted directly: what a team's role gives on a project isn't listed there. A search box, sorting, People who were removed and Columns narrow and order the list, and the page's address keeps them.

The People page: "8 people in this tenant", a People who were removed checkbox, Columns and Add a person; each person with their email, their access in words (the seed user: tenant admin, owner on Support and Billing, admin of team Support crew, admin reviewer; Ada Lovelace: reads the tenant's settings, viewer on Support, member of team Support crew, standard reviewer; Sam Rivera: reads the tenant's settings), their active keys, when they were last active and when they were added.

Add a person adds someone with their access in one step: "Give them their access now, in the same step." It takes a name, an optional email ("One person per email in this tenant."), project roles, teams, a reviewer tier, and tenant admin.

The Add a person dialog: a name and an email, a viewer role on Billing, the team Support crew as a member, no reviewer role, and the Tenant admin checkbox, with an Add button.

Each part is a step of its own. When they all work, the person's page opens. When one doesn't, the dialog says how each went:

  • They weren't added, such as for an email someone has: "Sam Rivera wasn't added.", each step with why ("Someone in this tenant already has that email.") or "not tried: they weren't added", and Change and try again.
  • They were added, but not everything was given: the steps that failed say why, with Try again what failed.
  • It isn't known whether they were added, because the runtime didn't answer: it says so and offers Look in People, rather than adding them again.

A person's page says what they may do and changes it in place, each part where you may:

  • Projects and teams: change a role, Take away one, or Give access to another project or team, with a role. Each project role says what it gives, such as "Also changes it: registers and runs agents, judges, publishes." for an editor.
  • Reviewer: their tier, or none; Take off the roster.
  • Tenant admin: making or unmaking one. "A tenant always keeps one admin: removing the only one is refused."

Taking something away asks first: "Take Ada Lovelace off Support? From their next request on, they can't work in Support. Their other access, and what they did there, stay." The page also lists their keys, with Make a key for them, where they're signed in, their sign-ins, and Remove from the tenant.

Ada Lovelace's page as a tenant admin: "1 active key acts as Ada Lovelace" with Make a key for Ada Lovelace; What they may do: Support (viewer) and Support crew (member), each with Take away; Reviewer: Standard, with Take off the roster; Tenant admin: No, with Make tenant admin; Give access (a project, a role); then Signed in, Their keys (ada-laptop, expiring in 3 days, with Revoke), Sign-ins, and Remove from the tenant.

A tenant admin's home in the tenant starts with what needs a look, such as "8 people in 3 projects and 1 team. 3 people have no project of their own; 1 key expires this week.", or "Nothing needs you right now.":

  • No project of their own: people who aren't a tenant admin and have no project role given them directly. A project they reach through a team or as an org admin isn't counted.
  • Keys: those that expire this week, or have gone unused for 90 days, with All keys.
  • Recently refused: requests the access audit recorded as denied, with All refused requests. "Someone refused may be missing access they need."

The tenant's home as a tenant admin. What needs you: "8 people in 3 projects and 1 team. 3 people have no project of their own; 1 key expires this week."; No project of their own: Ben Okafor, Sam Rivera and Eddie Park; Keys: "ada-laptop expires in 3 d"; Recently refused: a person refused admin on the tenant, just now. Below: the projects, and the tenant's sections.

It counts everyone, and never says all is clear before it has read everything. While a read is still coming in, it says so, such as "Still reading everyone's access…". A read that failed is named: "… couldn't be read".

Each change is kept as evidence: person-added, person-granted, person-ungranted, person-unregistered, person-capabilities-granted, person-capabilities-revoked, api-key-minted, api-key-revoked, service-account-created, service-account-granted, service-account-ungranted and service-account-unregistered. A key's secret is never in one.