The curl POST command can be used to configure a consumer to use the key-auth plugin.

On the Kong server

If Kong is running on docker, refer to Kong - Docker container command line for the steps on how to issue commands in the Kong Docker container. Assuming you are using the default kong.conf file, the Kong Admin API will listen on port 8001.

If issuing this command on the Kong server, this command will configure consumer john.doe to use the key-auth plugin.

curl -X POST "http://localhost:8001/consumers/john.doe/key-auth" --data "key=some_random_string"

From a remote server

If issuing this command from a remote server, this command will create a consumer for the user john.doe.

curl -X POST "http://hostname:8000/admin-api/consumers/john.doe/key-auth" --data "key=some_random_string"

Validation

If the consumer was successfully updated, something like this should be displayed.

{
 "created_at":1585018492,
 "consumer":{"id":"6b3f8801-a8a2-4e48-ab54-53bdb285c334"},
 "id":"7fac58ad-73ac-4dd3-a1f4-513711764d26",
 "tags":null,
 "ttl":null,
 "key":"abc123"
}