AUTHENTICATE WITH API KEYS

This guide shows you how to authenticate with Swamp using API keys — through the CLI, the web UI, or environment variables.

Prerequisites

• The Swamp CLI installed (curl -fsSL https://swamp-club.com/install.sh | sh)
• A Swamp account (swamp-club.com)

Log in with the CLI

Run swamp auth login to authenticate via your browser:

$ swamp auth login

Your browser opens to the Swamp login page. After you sign in, the CLI confirms authentication and stores your credentials locally.

Verify your identity:

$ swamp auth whoami

You will see output like:

stack72 (paul@systeminit.com) on https://swamp-club.com
Collectives: swamp, system-initiative, stack72

Log in without a browser

Pass credentials directly to skip the browser flow. The --username flag accepts either a username or an email address:

$ swamp auth login --username alice --password secret --no-browser

$ swamp auth login --username alice@example.com --password secret --no-browser

Omit --password to be prompted for it interactively — the username is already provided via the flag, so only the password is prompted.

Pipe a password from stdin

You can pipe a password to avoid interactive prompts entirely. This is useful in scripts and CI environments where no TTY is available:

$ printf 'mypassword\n' | swamp auth login --username alice --no-browser

The --username flag is required when piping — without it the CLI prompts for both username and password, which conflicts with the pipe.

Use an environment variable

Set SWAMP_API_KEY to authenticate without storing credentials to disk:

export SWAMP_API_KEY=swamp_abc123...

All CLI commands that require authentication will use this key. See the API Key Authentication reference for precedence rules.

Create a personal API key in the web UI

If you need a key for custom integrations outside the CLI:

1. Sign in to swamp-club.com
2. Open Settings
3. Expand the Access Tokens panel
4. Enter a name and click Create
5. Copy the key immediately — it is shown only once

Create a collective API token

To create a token scoped to a collective, you need the owner or admin role on that collective.

1. Navigate to the collective's settings page
2. Expand the API Tokens panel
3. Enter a name and optionally set an expiration date
4. Click Create
5. Copy the token immediately — it is shown only once

Revoke or delete a key

CLI-created keys: Run swamp auth logout to remove stored credentials and revoke the key.

$ swamp auth logout

Web UI keys: Open Settings > Access Tokens, click Revoke to disable the key (it can no longer authenticate but remains visible), or Delete to remove it permanently.

Collective tokens: Open the collective's settings, find the token, and click Revoke or Delete.

Connect to a different server

Pass --server to authenticate against a server other than the default:

$ swamp auth login --server https://registry.example.com

You can also set the SWAMP_CLUB_URL environment variable.

Refer to the API Key Authentication reference for the full details on key formats, scoping, and credential precedence.