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Every pulse command that communicates with PulseGuard requires an API key. Authentication is a one-time setup step: you log in once, and the CLI stores your credentials securely on your machine for all future commands. Your key is never transmitted to any third party — it is only ever sent to PulseGuard’s API.

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Get an API key

1

Open the dashboard

Go to pulseguard.io/dashboard and sign in to your account.
2

Navigate to API Keys

Click Settings in the sidebar, then select the API Keys tab.
3

Create a new key

Click New Key, give it a descriptive name (for example, local-dev or ci-pipeline), and copy the generated key. API keys are prefixed with pg_ and are shown only once.
Store your API key somewhere safe immediately after creation. PulseGuard does not show the full key again after you navigate away from the creation dialog.

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Log in

Pass your API key to pulse auth login using the --key flag:
The CLI verifies the key against PulseGuard’s API before saving it. On success you’ll see:
If the key is invalid or the network is unreachable, the CLI exits with an error and does not persist any credentials.

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Check your authentication status

At any time, confirm which credentials the CLI is currently using:
If you are not logged in, the output guides you to the login command:

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Log out

To remove your stored credentials from the machine:
This is useful when rotating keys or working on a shared machine.

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Where credentials are stored

The CLI uses conf, which persists settings in the OS-native user config directory: Your API key is stored in that directory and is only readable by your OS user account. It is never sent anywhere except to PulseGuard’s API endpoint.

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Connect to a self-hosted instance

If you run a self-hosted PulseGuard deployment, pass your instance’s URL with the --url flag at login time:
The CLI saves the custom base URL alongside the API key and uses it for every subsequent request. You can verify the active base URL with pulse auth status.