Hmbown/CodeWhale · error

empty API key provided

Error message

empty API key provided

What it means

The interactive API-key reader prints `Enter API key for <slot>:` (or reads quietly when stdin is not a terminal), trims the line, and rejects an empty result. An empty key would silently produce a broken provider configuration, so Codewhale fails fast with `empty API key provided` instead of storing nothing.

Source

Thrown at crates/cli/src/lib.rs:4008

        None => "n/a",
    }
}

fn prompt_api_key(slot: &str) -> Result<String> {
    use std::io::{IsTerminal, Write};
    eprint!("Enter API key for {slot}: ");
    io::stderr().flush().ok();
    if !io::stdin().is_terminal() {
        // Non-interactive: read directly without prompting twice.
        return read_api_key_from_stdin();
    }
    let mut buf = String::new();
    io::stdin()
        .read_line(&mut buf)
        .context("failed to read API key from stdin")?;
    let key = buf.trim().to_string();
    if key.is_empty() {
        bail!("empty API key provided");
    }
    Ok(key)
}

/// Move plaintext keys from config.toml into the configured secret store.
/// Hidden in v0.8.8 because the normal setup path is config/env only.
fn run_auth_migrate(store: &mut ConfigStore, secrets: &Secrets, dry_run: bool) -> Result<()> {
    let mut migrated: Vec<(ProviderKind, &'static str)> = Vec::new();
    let mut warnings: Vec<String> = Vec::new();
    let literal =
        |value: &String| classify_config_api_key_value(value) == ConfigApiKeyValueKind::Literal;

    for provider in ProviderKind::ALL {
        let slot = provider_slot(provider);
        let from_provider_block = store
            .config
            .providers
            .for_provider(provider)

View on GitHub (pinned to 0c42157ee5)

Solutions

1. Re-run and paste a real, non-empty API key for the slot named in the prompt
2. Provide the key non-interactively: pipe it (`printf '%s\n' "$KEY" | codewhale auth api-key ...`) or use the provider's env var
3. Check the key in the provider console and re-copy it without stray whitespace

Example fix

# before
Enter API key for deepseek: <Enter>
# empty API key provided

# after
Enter API key for deepseek: sk-********

#!/usr/bin/env bash
key="${DEEPSEEK_API_KEY:-}"
[ -n "${key// /}" ] || { read -rs -p "API key: " key; echo; }
[ -n "${key// /}" ] || { echo "empty API key" >&2; exit 1; }
printf '%s\n' "$key" | codewhale auth api-key --provider deepseek

fn is_valid_api_key(s: &str) -> bool {
    !s.trim().is_empty()
}

When it happens

Trigger: Pressing Enter without typing at the API-key prompt; pasting only whitespace/newlines; a terminal where the paste lands after the read; piping blank input into the interactive path.

Common situations: Password managers failing to auto-fill the hidden prompt; users intending to skip key entry; trailing-newline-only stdin from a wrapper script; keys copied with only whitespace.

Understand the failure class

Background: "API key is required" / "API key not found" / "No API key was set": the missing-api-key error family across 16 libraries — this error's family across 16 libraries.

Related errors

• No API key provided via stdin.
• Kimi is API-key-only in Codewhale. Create a key at https://p
• Model name cannot be empty
• No API key provided. Pass --api-key or pipe one via stdin.
• The Codewhale service returned an unexpectedly large respons

AI-assisted analysis of Hmbown/CodeWhale@0c42157ee5 (2026-08-20). Data as JSON: /api/errors/0b2287b7487146c3. Report an issue: GitHub.