
“Event Keys” are unique keys that allow applications to send (aka publish) events to Inngest. When using Event Keys with the [Inngest SDK](/docs/events), you can configure the `Inngest` client in 2 ways:

1. Setting the key as an `INNGEST_EVENT_KEY` environment variable in your application*
2. Passing the key as an argument

```jsx
// Recommended: Set an INNGEST_EVENT_KEY environment variable for automatic configuration:
const inngest = new Inngest({ name: "Your app name" });

// Or you can pass the eventKey explicitly to the constructor:
const inngest = new Inngest({ name: "Your app name", eventKey: "xyz..." });

// With the Event Key, you're now ready to send data:
inngest.send(...)
```

\* Our [Vercel integration](/docs/deploy/vercel) automatically sets the `INNGEST_EVENT_KEY` as an environment variable for you

<aside>
  🙋 Event keys should be unique to a given <strong>environment</strong> (production, test) and a specific <strong>application</strong> (your API, your mobile app, etc.). You can easily create and manage your event keys from the Inngest Cloud dashboard.
</aside>

## Creating a new Event Key

From the Inngest Cloud dashboard, Event Keys are listed in the "Sources" tab:

1. Click on “Sources” ([direct link](https://app.inngest.com/sources))
2. Click the "+ Create an Event Key" button at the top right
3. Update the Event Key's name to something descriptive and click "Save changes"
4. Copy the newly created key using the “Copy” button:

![A newly created Event Key in the Inngest Cloud dashboard](/assets/docs/creating-an-event-key/new-event-key.png)

🎉 You can now use this event key with the Inngest SDK to send events directly from any codebase. You can also:

- Rename your source at any time using the “Name” field so you and your team can identify it later
- Delete the source when your key is no longer needed
- Filter events by name or IP addresses for increased control and security

## Best practices

1. We recommend creating a unique key per source and per environment (production/test - Tip: use the environment "test mode" toggle on the sidebar)
2. For client-side sources where the event key may be visible in the browser, we recommend filtering events by name (e.g. `website/page.viewed` or pattern `website/*`) to discourage spam events from being sent to your Inngest Cloud account.

Creating an Event Key

Best practices

Creating a new Event Key

Event Format

Benefits of the `user` object - User-based debugging

Optional fields

Required fields


Firstly, make sure you have the [`inngest`](https://www.npmjs.com/package/inngest) package installed via NPM or yarn:

```bash
npm install inngest  # or yarn add inngest
```

Start with creating an `Inngest` client. An "Event Key" is required to send events ([How to create an Event Key](/docs/creating-an-event-key)):

```typescript
import { Inngest } from 'inngest';

// Recommended: Set an INNGEST_EVENT_KEY environment variable for automatic configuration:
const inngest = new Inngest({ name: "Your app name" });

// Or you can pass the eventKey explicitly to the constructor:
const inngest = new Inngest({ name: "Your app name", eventKey: "xyz..." });
```

Then, sending an event is simple, just call the the `send()` method with your event payload ([Read about the payload format](/docs/event-format-and-structure)):

```typescript
// This sends an event to Inngest.
await inngest.send({
  // The event name
  name: "demo/demo.event",
  // The event's data
  data: {
    account: {
      id: 123,
      email: "test@example.com",
    },
    cartID: "ed12c8bde",
    like: true,
  }
});
```

Sending this event, named `demo/demo.event`, to Inngest will do two things:

1. Automatically run any [functions](/docs/functions) that are triggered by this specific event, passing the event payload to the function's argumnts.
2. Create a new event version, if it doesn't already exist, in Inngest Cloud and infer the event payload's structure, [generating a Type for use with TypeScript](/docs/typescript)

<aside>

⚡️ When you send an event, Inngest will automatically run any functions that are triggered by the same event name — in parallel, in the background, without configuring any queues.

</aside>

### Advanced usage

There's more you can do with events, such as [user identification](/docs/event-format-and-structure#optional-fields), event versioning, and filtering for each key.

## Next up

Next up, learn how to [deploy your functions](/docs/deploy) by registering them with Inngest.


Required fields

Optional fields

Benefits of the user object - User-based debugging

Benefits of the `user` object - User-based debugging