Hmbown/CodeWhale · error

No local {} API key was found in config, the secret store, o

Error message

No local {} API key was found in config, the secret store, or the environment

What it means

Thrown by `codewhale cloud keys set <provider> --from-local`. resolve_local_key searches, in order: the provider config entry (providers.<kind>.api_key, resolving $VAR references; Deepseek also falls back to the top-level api_key), the local secret-store slot named for the provider kind, and the provider's environment variables. When every source is absent or whitespace-empty, there is nothing to upload and this error is returned.

Source

Thrown at crates/cli/src/cloud.rs:648

        CloudCommand::Keys(keys) => match keys.command {
            CloudKeysCommand::List => {
                let user = client.me()?;
                write_account(out, "Codewhale account keys.", profile, api_base, &user)?;
                for provider in CloudProvider::ALL {
                    let state = user.model_keys.get(provider.slug());
                    if state.is_some_and(|state| state.configured) {
                        writeln!(out, "{}: set", provider.slug())?;
                    } else {
                        writeln!(out, "{}: not set", provider.slug())?;
                    }
                }
                Ok(())
            }
            CloudKeysCommand::Set(set) => {
                let user = client.me()?;
                let key = if set.from_local {
                    resolve_local_key(config, provider_secrets, set.provider)?.ok_or_else(|| {
                        anyhow!(
                            "No local {} API key was found in config, the secret store, or the environment",
                            set.provider.slug()
                        )
                    })?
                } else if set.api_key_stdin {
                    key_reader(KeyReadMode::Stdin)?
                } else {
                    key_reader(KeyReadMode::HiddenPrompt(set.provider.slug().to_string()))?
                };
                let key = key.trim().to_string();
                validate_api_key(&key)?;
                let label = validate_label(&set.label)?;
                client.set_key(set.provider, &key, &label)?;
                writeln!(
                    out,
                    "Saved {} for Codewhale account {} (profile {}).",
                    set.provider.slug(),
                    printable(&user.id),

View on GitHub (pinned to 8880682c63)

Solutions

1. Skip --from-local and supply the key directly: `codewhale cloud keys set <provider> --api-key-stdin` (or the hidden prompt)
2. Export the provider's env var (e.g. OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...) in the shell and rerun the same command
3. Configure the key locally first (provider auth / api-key set) so the secret store has a value, then rerun --from-local
4. Verify sources with `codewhale cloud keys status` and by inspecting the providers section of the config

Example fix

# before
 codewhale cloud keys set openai --from-local   # error: no local key

# after
 export OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-... 
 codewhale cloud keys set openai --from-local 
 # or: printf '%s' "$KEY" | codewhale cloud keys set openai --api-key-stdin

# Verify a local key exists before attempting --from-local:
 codewhale cloud keys status | grep -q "$(slug): set" \
   || export -n OPENAI_API_KEY 2>/dev/null \
   || [ -n "${OPENAI_API_KEY:-}" ] \
   || { echo "no local key; using stdin"; printf '%s' "$KEY" | codewhale cloud keys set openai --api-key-stdin; }

When it happens

Trigger: Running `cloud keys set <provider> --from-local` on a machine where the provider was never configured: no config key, no secret-store entry, and no provider env var (e.g. OPENAI_API_KEY) set. Also when a $VAR config reference points at an unset variable, or the env var is set but empty.

Common situations: Fresh machine or container trying to migrate a key that only exists on a dev workstation; key stored under a different provider than the cloud provider's local_kind maps to; CI job that never injects the env var.

Related errors

• Secret storage write failed for {slot}: {err}. Refusing to w
• Secret storage snapshot failed for {slot}: {error}. Refusing
• Codewhale account API base URL must include a host
• The Codewhale service returned a verification URL without a
• Codewhale account request failed (HTTP {}, code {code})

AI-assisted analysis of Hmbown/CodeWhale@8880682c63 (2026-08-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/7280aabc3bfd26f0. Report an issue: GitHub.