---
layout: docs
page_title: 'Commands: operator keygen'
description: >
  The `operator keygen` command generates an encryption key that can be used for
  Nomad server's gossip traffic encryption. The keygen command uses a
  cryptographically strong pseudo-random number generator to generate the key.
---

# Command: operator keygen

The `operator keygen` command generates an encryption key that can be used for
Nomad server's gossip traffic encryption. The keygen command uses a
cryptographically strong pseudo-random number generator to generate the key.

The resulting key is encoded in the [RFC4648] "URL and filename safe" base64
alphabet. If you use another tool such as OpenSSL to generate the gossip key,
you should pipe the input through the `base64(1)` command to ensure it is
safely encoded. For example: `openssl rand 32 | base64`

## Usage

```plaintext
nomad operator keygen
```

## Example

```shell-session
$ nomad operator keygen
6RhfKFZ5uYEaU6RgWzx69ssLcpiIkvnEZs5KBOQxvxA=
```

[rfc4648]: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4648#section-5