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This guide walks you through creating an API key and using it to authenticate requests to the Kernel API.

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Create an API key

  1. Open the Kernel app and navigate to Settings > API keys
  2. Click Create key — optionally name it (e.g. “Production API”)
  3. Copy the key value and signing secret — both are shown only once
Save your key and signing secret somewhere secure, like a password manager or environment variable. You will not be able to see them again.

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Authenticate a request

Pass the key in the x-api-key header of every API request:
curl
curl -X POST https://api.kernel.ai/rest/v1/entity-resolution \
  -H "x-api-key: $KERNEL_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"legal_name": "Stripe"}'
For full authentication details, see API keys.

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What is the signing secret?

The signing secret (prefixed with whsec_) lets you verify that webhook payloads were sent by Kernel. It is different from your API key — the API key authenticates requests to Kernel, while the signing secret verifies that webhooks are from Kernel. To learn how to verify webhook signatures, see Webhooks.

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Next steps

Resolve an entity

Submit a company and get back its resolved identity.

API reference

Full endpoint documentation, authentication, and error handling.