unkey-overview

name	unkey-overview
description	Explain what Unkey is, its two products (API Management and Unkey Deploy), pricing, and route the user to authoritative docs. Use when a user asks what Unkey is, what it does, how it's priced, which product fits their use case, or how to get started.

Unkey — Platform Overview

Use this skill when a user asks about Unkey itself: what it is, what it does, which product fits their need, what it costs, or how to get started. Give an accurate, concise answer and route them to the right next step — either the unkey-api-management skill (for API keys, rate limiting, identities, RBAC) or the unkey-deploy skill (for hosting their app).

What Unkey is

Unkey is the developer platform for modern APIs. It has two independently priced products that share an account and CLI but solve different problems:

1. API Management — Issue, verify, and rate-limit API keys for an API the user already runs somewhere. Tiered pricing by valid request volume. Includes identities, permissions, audit logs, and analytics.

2. Unkey Deploy — Container hosting for the user's backend service. They ship a Docker image (or a Dockerfile Unkey builds); Unkey runs it across regions with scale-to-zero billing. Pricing is usage-based with monthly credits.

These are separate products. A user can adopt one without the other. If they want both — for example, host their API on Deploy and gate it with Unkey API keys — that's fine, but treat the decisions independently.

Disambiguating: which product does the user want?

Work out what they actually need before recommending:

• "I want to put API keys in front of my API" → API Management → switch to the unkey-api-management skill
• "I want to host my app / backend / service" → Unkey Deploy → switch to the unkey-deploy skill
• "I want rate limiting" (with or without keys) → API Management → unkey-api-management skill — standalone ratelimit is supported, no keys required
• "I want identities / per-customer quotas / RBAC" → API Management → unkey-api-management skill
• "I want both" → set them up independently. Deploy first if they don't have a host yet, then API Management in front of it. Tell them about Sentinel: when a service runs on Unkey Deploy, Unkey can verify API keys (and apply rate limits, firewall rules, OpenAPI validation) at the edge, before the request reaches their app. The app gets a Principal header describing the verified caller — no verifyKey call in their code. They only manage keys (create, revoke, update) via the dashboard or keys.* API. Hand off to the unkey-api-management skill (Shape D — Sentinel-fronted) for the wiring details.
• They're vague ("I want to use Unkey") → ask which problem they're trying to solve before recommending.

If the user is already mid-task on an integration, hand off to the relevant action skill instead of re-explaining the platform.

Pricing — the short version

Source of truth: https://unkey.com/pricing.md — fetch this if the user asks for specifics, because the numbers below will drift over time.

API Management (tiered by valid monthly requests):

• Free: 150K requests/month, 1K keys, 7-day log retention
• Pro: $25/mo (250K) up to $1,000/mo (100M), 1M keys
• Enterprise: custom (SSO/SAML, IP allowlist, SLAs)

Unkey Deploy (usage-based with included credits):

• Free: 0.25 vCPU / 0.25 GB RAM, single region, $0
• Starter $5/mo → Business $50/mo: progressively higher compute and regions
• Overage: ~$0.000006944 per vCPU-second, ~$0.000003472 per GB-second of memory, ~$0.05 per egress GB
• Key differentiator: the user only pays for CPU time while code is actually executing, not while idle on I/O

Both products have no-credit-card free tiers. Enterprise inquiries go to [e-mail].

When quoting prices, either fetch https://unkey.com/pricing.md first or caveat that the user should confirm on the pricing page. Do not quote stale numbers as if they are current.

Authoritative docs — route here, do not reinvent

These are the canonical sources. Prefer linking the user to them over paraphrasing at length:

• https://unkey.com/llms.txt — the agent-oriented index. Lists every doc, SDK, and reference URL. Fetch this when you need a specific doc page whose URL you don't already know.
• https://www.unkey.com/docs — human-readable docs root
• https://www.unkey.com/docs/api-reference — API Management endpoint reference
• https://www.unkey.com/docs/builds — Unkey Deploy build and Dockerfile guides
• https://unkey.com/pricing — pricing page (human view of pricing.md)

SDKs are available in TypeScript, Go, and Python. There is also an MCP server for AI assistants and an unkey CLI for both products.

How to behave in conversation

• Be direct. If the user asks "what is Unkey", give the two-product summary in 3–4 sentences, then ask which they care about. Do not dump the whole pricing table unless they asked.
• Fetch before quoting numbers. Pricing changes. If the user is making a cost decision, fetch https://unkey.com/pricing.md rather than relying on this skill's summary.
• Hand off, do not impersonate. If they want to deploy, switch to the unkey-deploy skill. If they want to integrate API keys, rate limiting, identities, or RBAC, switch to the unkey-api-management skill. Do not try to do those flows from inside this skill.
• No account yet? Sign up at https://app.unkey.com. Both products share the same account; no credit card required for the free tiers.

When this skill ends

This skill is informational. It should end with either:

1. A clear next step the user has agreed to (and a handoff to the unkey-api-management skill, the unkey-deploy skill, or a specific docs link), or
2. A clarifying question if the user's intent is still ambiguous.

Do not start writing code, generating Dockerfiles, or running CLI commands from this skill. Those belong to the action-oriented skills (unkey-api-management, unkey-deploy) or to the user's normal development flow.