Unit21 Authentication

generated: '2026-08-27'
method: searched
source: https://docs.unit21.ai/reference/generate-api-keys
description: >-
  Unit21 authenticates every API request with a static organization-scoped API
  key sent in a custom u21-key request header over HTTPS. There is no OAuth 2.0
  authorization server, no OpenID Connect discovery document and no scope
  surface -- so scopes/ is deliberately not emitted for this provider. An
  optional second layer encrypts the request payload itself with a Fernet key
  supplied in a u21-fernet header.
provenance_note: >-
  As of 2026-08-27 every page on docs.unit21.ai returns a 7,947-byte
  "Sign in | Unit21" HTML gate to an unauthenticated fetch, so the field values
  below were read from the public search index of those same pages rather than
  fetched directly, and corroborated against a live probe of the API host. They
  are recorded as searched, not probed. Anything that could not be corroborated
  is left null rather than guessed.
security_schemes:
  - id: u21-key
    type: apiKey
    in: header
    name: u21-key
    description: >-
      Organization-scoped API key. Required on every request; unauthenticated
      requests fail.
    scopes: []
    docs: https://docs.unit21.ai/reference/generate-api-keys
  - id: u21-fernet
    type: apiKey
    in: header
    name: u21-fernet
    description: >-
      Optional payload-encryption key header. When used, the request body is
      encrypted with Fernet (128-bit AES in CBC mode with PKCS7 padding,
      authenticated with HMAC-SHA256). Available on all API endpoints.
    optional: true
    docs: https://docs.unit21.ai/reference/encryption
oauth2: false
openid_connect: false
mutual_tls: null
key_management:
  self_service: true
  where: >-
    Unit21 Dashboard -> Data Management -> Integrations tab -> "Request a new
    key". Administrator privileges required.
  max_active_keys: 10
  displayed_once: true
  stored_by_provider: false
  rotation_guidance: Unit21 recommends rotating keys every 2-6 months.
  docs: https://docs.unit21.ai/reference/generate-api-keys
transport:
  https_required: true
  observed:
    url: https://sandbox1-api.unit21.com/v1/entities/list
    method: POST
    status: 401
    body: '{"error_code":"unauthorized"}'
    server: awselb/2.0
    www_authenticate: null
    note: >-
      Probed 2026-08-27 without credentials. The edge returns a bare JSON 401
      with no WWW-Authenticate challenge, so an agent gets no machine-readable
      hint about which credential to present.
environments:
  - name: Sandbox
    baseURL: https://sandbox1-api.unit21.com/v1
  - name: Production
    baseURL: https://{org_name}-api.unit21.com/v1
    templated: true
    note: >-
      The production host is organization-specific and is issued at onboarding;
      the templated form is the real, correct base and is not a placeholder.
gaps:
  - No WWW-Authenticate header on 401, so the auth scheme is not discoverable at runtime.
  - No /.well-known/openid-configuration or /.well-known/oauth-authorization-server (both 404/401).
  - The authentication reference itself is behind an email sign-in gate.