diff --git a/cmd/crowdsec-cli/bouncers.go b/cmd/crowdsec-cli/bouncers.go
index 7f5c4b597..9ce98d4b6 100644
--- a/cmd/crowdsec-cli/bouncers.go
+++ b/cmd/crowdsec-cli/bouncers.go
@@ -5,7 +5,6 @@ import (
 	"encoding/json"
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
-	"slices"
 	"strings"
 	"time"
 
@@ -13,12 +12,12 @@ import (
 	"github.com/fatih/color"
 	log "github.com/sirupsen/logrus"
 	"github.com/spf13/cobra"
+	"slices"
 
+	"github.com/crowdsecurity/crowdsec/cmd/crowdsec-cli/require"
 	middlewares "github.com/crowdsecurity/crowdsec/pkg/apiserver/middlewares/v1"
 	"github.com/crowdsecurity/crowdsec/pkg/database"
 	"github.com/crowdsecurity/crowdsec/pkg/types"
-
-	"github.com/crowdsecurity/crowdsec/cmd/crowdsec-cli/require"
 )
 
 func getBouncers(out io.Writer, dbClient *database.Client) error {
@@ -26,16 +25,18 @@ func getBouncers(out io.Writer, dbClient *database.Client) error {
 	if err != nil {
 		return fmt.Errorf("unable to list bouncers: %s", err)
 	}
-	if csConfig.Cscli.Output == "human" {
+
+	switch csConfig.Cscli.Output {
+	case "human":
 		getBouncersTable(out, bouncers)
-	} else if csConfig.Cscli.Output == "json" {
+	case "json":
 		enc := json.NewEncoder(out)
 		enc.SetIndent("", "  ")
 		if err := enc.Encode(bouncers); err != nil {
 			return fmt.Errorf("failed to unmarshal: %w", err)
 		}
 		return nil
-	} else if csConfig.Cscli.Output == "raw" {
+	case "raw":
 		csvwriter := csv.NewWriter(out)
 		err := csvwriter.Write([]string{"name", "ip", "revoked", "last_pull", "type", "version", "auth_type"})
 		if err != nil {
@@ -55,6 +56,7 @@ func getBouncers(out io.Writer, dbClient *database.Client) error {
 		}
 		csvwriter.Flush()
 	}
+
 	return nil
 }
 
@@ -78,12 +80,9 @@ func NewBouncersListCmd() *cobra.Command {
 }
 
 func runBouncersAdd(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
-	flags := cmd.Flags()
+	keyLength := 32
 
-	keyLength, err := flags.GetInt("length")
-	if err != nil {
-		return err
-	}
+	flags := cmd.Flags()
 
 	key, err := flags.GetString("key")
 	if err != nil {
@@ -108,13 +107,14 @@ func runBouncersAdd(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
 		return fmt.Errorf("unable to create bouncer: %s", err)
 	}
 
-	if csConfig.Cscli.Output == "human" {
+	switch csConfig.Cscli.Output {
+	case "human":
 		fmt.Printf("API key for '%s':\n\n", keyName)
 		fmt.Printf("   %s\n\n", apiKey)
 		fmt.Print("Please keep this key since you will not be able to retrieve it!\n")
-	} else if csConfig.Cscli.Output == "raw" {
+	case "raw":
 		fmt.Printf("%s", apiKey)
-	} else if csConfig.Cscli.Output == "json" {
+	case "json":
 		j, err := json.Marshal(apiKey)
 		if err != nil {
 			return fmt.Errorf("unable to marshal api key")
@@ -127,19 +127,18 @@ func runBouncersAdd(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
 
 func NewBouncersAddCmd() *cobra.Command {
 	cmdBouncersAdd := &cobra.Command{
-		Use:   "add MyBouncerName [--length 16]",
+		Use:   "add MyBouncerName",
 		Short: "add a single bouncer to the database",
 		Example: `cscli bouncers add MyBouncerName
-cscli bouncers add MyBouncerName -l 24
-cscli bouncers add MyBouncerName -k <random-key>`,
+cscli bouncers add MyBouncerName --key <random-key>`,
 		Args:              cobra.ExactArgs(1),
 		DisableAutoGenTag: true,
 		RunE:              runBouncersAdd,
 	}
 
 	flags := cmdBouncersAdd.Flags()
-
-	flags.IntP("length", "l", 16, "length of the api key")
+	flags.StringP("length", "l", "", "length of the api key")
+	flags.MarkDeprecated("length", "use --key instead")
 	flags.StringP("key", "k", "", "api key for the bouncer")
 
 	return cmdBouncersAdd
diff --git a/test/bats/10_bouncers.bats b/test/bats/10_bouncers.bats
index 79ba0eda8..3f6167ff6 100644
--- a/test/bats/10_bouncers.bats
+++ b/test/bats/10_bouncers.bats
@@ -36,6 +36,18 @@ teardown() {
     assert_output '[]'
 }
 
+@test "we can create a bouncer with a known key" {
+    # also test the output formats since we know the key
+    rune -0 cscli bouncers add ciTestBouncer --key "foobarbaz" -o human
+    assert_output --partial 'foobarbaz'
+    rune -0 cscli bouncers delete ciTestBouncer
+    rune -0 cscli bouncers add ciTestBouncer --key "foobarbaz" -o json
+    assert_output '"foobarbaz"'
+    rune -0 cscli bouncers delete ciTestBouncer
+    rune -0 cscli bouncers add ciTestBouncer --key "foobarbaz" -o raw
+    assert_output foobarbaz
+}
+
 @test "we can't add the same bouncer twice" {
     rune -0 cscli bouncers add ciTestBouncer
     rune -1 cscli bouncers add ciTestBouncer -o json