---
layout: api
page_title: /sys/rotate - HTTP API
description: The `/sys/rotate` endpoint is used to rotate the encryption key.
---

> [!IMPORTANT]  
> **Documentation Update:** Product documentation, which were located in this repository under `/website`, are now located in [`hashicorp/web-unified-docs`](https://github.com/hashicorp/web-unified-docs), colocated with all other product documentation. Contributions to this content should be done in the `web-unified-docs` repo, and not this one. Changes made to `/website` content in this repo will not be reflected on the developer.hashicorp.com website.

# `/sys/rotate`

@include 'alerts/restricted-root.mdx'

The `/sys/rotate` endpoint is used to rotate the encryption key.

## Rotate encryption key

This endpoint triggers a rotation of the backend encryption key. This is the key
that is used to encrypt data written to the storage backend, and is not provided
to operators. This operation is done online. Future values are encrypted with
the new key, while old values are decrypted with previous encryption keys.

This path requires `sudo` capability in addition to `update`.

| Method | Path          |
| :----- | :------------ |
| `POST` | `/sys/rotate` |

### Sample request

```shell-session
$ curl \
    --header "X-Vault-Token: ..." \
    --request POST \
    http://127.0.0.1:8200/v1/sys/rotate
```
