---
title: "Validate External Key"
method: POST
path: "/v1/organizations/external_keys/{external_key_id}/validate"
---

# Validate External Key

`POST /v1/organizations/external_keys/{external_key_id}/validate`

## Request

- Base URL: `https://api.anthropic.com`
- URL: `https://api.anthropic.com/v1/organizations/external_keys/{external_key_id}/validate`
- Auth: none declared

Validate an external key config against the customer's KMS.

Anthropic performs an encrypt/decrypt roundtrip against the configured
KMS key and waits up to 30 seconds for the result. The response status is
`success` if the roundtrip succeeded, or `failure` with an error
message if it failed or timed out.

## Path parameters

- `external_key_id` string, required: ID of the External Key.

## Headers

- `anthropic-version` string: The version of the Claude API you want to use. Read more about versioning and our version history [here](https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/api/versioning).

## Response `200`

Successful Response

- ValidateExternalKeyResponse: Result of a validation roundtrip against the customer's KMS. HTTP 200 for both outcomes — the operation completed; `status` says whether the key works.
  - `error` string, nullable, required: Error message when status is `failure`. Null otherwise.
  - `status` 'failure' | 'success', required: `success` — encrypt/decrypt roundtrip succeeded. `failure` — the roundtrip failed or timed out; see `error`.
  - `type` 'external_key_validation', required

## Other responses

- `400`: Invalid argument - The client specified an invalid argument
- `401`: Unauthenticated - The request does not have valid authentication credentials
- `403`: Permission denied - The caller does not have permission to execute the specified operation
- `404`: Not found - Some requested entity was not found
- `408`: Deadline exceeded - The deadline expired before the operation could complete
- `409`: Aborted - The operation was aborted due to concurrency issue
- `412`: Failed precondition - Operation was rejected because the system is not in required state
- `413`: Out of range - Operation was attempted past the valid range
- `429`: Resource exhausted - Some resource has been exhausted (rate limiting)
- `431`: Request header fields too large - Request metadata was too large
- `499`: Cancelled - The operation was cancelled by the client
- `500`: Internal - Internal server error
- `501`: Unimplemented - The operation is not implemented or supported
- `503`: Unavailable - The service is currently unavailable
- `504`: Deadline exceeded - Upstream service did not respond in time
- `529`: Overloaded - The service is temporarily overloaded

## Changes

- **2026-09-30** `51c5260134e8`: 1 info
  - endpoint added

[Operation history](https://skmtc.dev/anthropics/apis/anthropic-api/changes/v1/organizations/external_keys/:external_key_id/validate/post.md)

---

[API](https://skmtc.dev/anthropics/apis/anthropic-api.md) - [All operations](https://skmtc.dev/anthropics/apis/anthropic-api/llms.txt) - [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc.dev/anthropics/apis/anthropic-api/revisions/328591af84ad?raw)