---
name: event-notifications-en-service-credentials
title: Authenticating with service credentials
description: You can generate a new set of credentials for cases where you want to manually connect an app or external consumer to an IBM Cloud service. Credentials are provided in JSON format. The JSON snippet lists credentials, such as the API key and secret, and the connection information for the service.
last-updated: 2022-10-26
---

> ## Documentation Index
> The table of contents for this documentation set is at https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/event-notifications?format=markdown
> The index for all IBM Cloud docs is at: https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use these files to discover more information as needed.

# Authenticating with service credentials
{: #en-service-credentials}

You can generate a new set of credentials for cases where you want to manually connect an app or external consumer to an IBM Cloud service. Credentials are provided in JSON format. The JSON snippet lists credentials, such as the API key and secret, and the connection information for the service.
{: shortdesc}

Services that are managed by IBM Cloud® Identity and Access Management (IAM) can generate a resource key, also known as a credential. Credentials are service-specific and vary based on how each service defines the credentials they need to generate. A credential might contain a username, password, hostname, port, and a URL.

Click `Service credentials` to view the existing credentials with the `Key name` and `Date created` or create a new credential.

For more information about adding and viewing a service credential, see [Adding and viewing credentials](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/account?topic=account-service_credentials&format=markdown){: external}.