Fosowl/agenticSeek · error · ValueError

API key not found in .env file. Please add it to your .env…

Error message

API key {api_key_var} not found in .env file. Please add it to your .env file and restart the server.

What it means

get_api_key loads a .env file via python-dotenv, builds the variable name as f"{provider.upper()}_API_KEY" (e.g. OPENAI_API_KEY), and raises this ValueError when that environment variable is unset or empty. The library requires an API key for cloud providers before any request is made.

Solutions

1. Add the correctly named key to your .env (e.g. OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...) and restart the server.
2. Verify the exact expected variable name: f"{provider.upper()}_API_KEY" for your provider string.
3. Ensure the .env file is in the current working directory where the server is launched, or pass an explicit path to load_dotenv().
4. Check the value is non-empty (an empty OPENAI_API_KEY= line still fails).

Example fix

// before (.env)
OPEN_AI_KEY=sk-...
// after (.env)
OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...

import os
from dotenv import load_dotenv

load_dotenv()
required = f"{provider_name.upper()}_API_KEY"
if not os.getenv(required):
    raise SystemExit(f"Set {required} in your .env before starting the server.")

def has_api_key(provider: str) -> bool:
    return bool(os.getenv(f"{provider.upper()}_API_KEY"))

try:
    provider = LLMProvider("openai")
except ValueError as e:
    # message names the missing {PROVIDER}_API_KEY variable
    print(e)
    sys.exit(1)

When it happens

Trigger: Using a provider in unsafe_providers ('openai', 'deepseek', 'dsk_deepseek', 'together', 'google', 'openrouter', 'anthropic', 'minimax') while the corresponding {PROVIDER}_API_KEY is missing from .env or the process environment; an empty API_KEY line in .env (load_dotenv sets empty string -> falsy); calling get_api_key with a provider whose variable naming differs from the convention; also triggered via huggingface_fn which calls get_api_key.

Common situations: Cloning a repo without the .env (it's gitignored); .env present but not in the working directory so load_dotenv finds nothing; wrong variable name (e.g. OPEN_AI_API_KEY instead of OPENAI_API_KEY); forgetting to restart the server/shell after adding the key; dsk_deepseek expecting DSK_DEEPSEEK_API_KEY while the user set DEEPSEEK_API_KEY.

Understand the failure class

Background: "environment variable is not set" and "Missing keys in environment" errors: what missing required env var messages mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 28 libraries.

Related errors

• Model not set
• Permission denied to read prompt file at path
• Prompt file not found at path
• Unknown provider
• Could not find

AI-assisted analysis of Fosowl/agenticSeek@ae57a23577 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/be000c9dfa95c86d. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at sources/llm_provider.py:63

        self.internal_url, self.in_docker = self.get_internal_url()
        self.unsafe_providers = ["openai", "deepseek", "dsk_deepseek", "together", "google", "openrouter", "anthropic", "minimax"]
        if self.provider_name not in self.available_providers:
            raise ValueError(f"Unknown provider: {provider_name}")
        if self.provider_name in self.unsafe_providers and self.is_local == False:
            pretty_print("Warning: you are using an API provider. You data will be sent to the cloud.", color="warning")
            self.api_key = self.get_api_key(self.provider_name)
        elif self.provider_name != "ollama":
            pretty_print(f"Provider: {provider_name} initialized at {self.server_ip}", color="success")

    def get_model_name(self) -> str:
        return self.model

    def get_api_key(self, provider):
        load_dotenv()
        api_key_var = f"{provider.upper()}_API_KEY"
        api_key = os.getenv(api_key_var)
        if not api_key:
            raise ValueError(
                f"API key {api_key_var} not found in .env file. "
                "Please add it to your .env file and restart the server."
            )
        return api_key

    def get_internal_url(self):
        load_dotenv()
        url = os.getenv("DOCKER_INTERNAL_URL")
        if not url: # running on host
            return "http://localhost", False
        return url, True

    def respond(self, history, verbose=True):
        """
        Use the choosen provider to generate text.
        """
        llm = self.available_providers[self.provider_name]
        self.logger.info(f"Using provider: {self.provider_name} at {self.server_ip}")

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