---
title: Identity (TypeID)
description: How Keysmith uses prefix-qualified, globally unique identifiers for every entity.
---

Every entity in Keysmith has a TypeID. TypeIDs are globally unique, sortable, URL-safe identifiers built on UUIDv7 with a human-readable prefix that tells you what kind of entity you're looking at.

A TypeID looks like this:

```
akey_01h455vb4pex5vsknk084sn02q
```

The `akey` prefix identifies this as an API key. The suffix is a base32-encoded UUIDv7 that encodes creation time, so IDs sort chronologically.

## The `id` package

The `id` package wraps the [TypeID Go library](https://github.com/jetify-com/typeid-go) (v2) with a single `ID` struct. All entity types share the same struct -- the prefix distinguishes them.

### Creating IDs

```go
import "github.com/xraph/keysmith/id"

keyID      := id.New(id.PrefixKey)       // akey_01h455vb...
policyID   := id.New(id.PrefixPolicy)    // kpol_01h455vb...
usageID    := id.New(id.PrefixUsage)     // kusg_01h455vb...
rotationID := id.New(id.PrefixRotation)  // krot_01h455vb...
scopeID    := id.New(id.PrefixScope)     // kscp_01h455vb...
```

Convenience constructors: `id.NewKeyID()`, `id.NewPolicyID()`, `id.NewUsageID()`, `id.NewRotationID()`, `id.NewScopeID()`.

### Parsing IDs

```go
parsed, err := id.Parse("akey_01h455vb4pex5vsknk084sn02q")
parsed, err := id.ParseWithPrefix("akey_01h455vb...", id.PrefixKey)  // validates prefix
parsed, err := id.ParseKeyID("akey_01h455vb...")                     // convenience
```

### Nil ID

```go
var empty id.ID
empty.IsNil()  // true
empty.String() // ""
id.Nil.IsNil() // true
```

### Database storage

`id.ID` implements `Scanner` and `driver.Valuer`. Stores as a string, returns `NULL` for nil IDs.

### JSON serialization

`id.ID` implements `TextMarshaler` and `TextUnmarshaler`. Nil IDs serialize as empty strings.

## Prefix reference

| Constant | Prefix | Entity |
|----------|--------|--------|
| `id.PrefixKey` | `akey` | API key |
| `id.PrefixPolicy` | `kpol` | Policy |
| `id.PrefixUsage` | `kusg` | Usage record |
| `id.PrefixRotation` | `krot` | Rotation record |
| `id.PrefixScope` | `kscp` | Scope |