Universally unique identifier (UUID)

A universally unique identifier (UUID) is a 128-bit value used to identify information in computer systems. A UUID can be generated without a central authority and is designed to have a negligible probability of matching another independently generated UUID.

UUIDs are commonly written as 32 hexadecimal digits in five groups separated by hyphens. For example:

550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000

Systems use UUIDs to share identities without relying on local names or sequential numbers. This makes them useful when several applications create, exchange, or store information about the same entity.

For more information, see RFC 9562.