TauricResearch/TradingAgents · error · AlphaVantageNotConfiguredError

ALPHA_VANTAGE_API_KEY environment variable is not set.

Error message

ALPHA_VANTAGE_API_KEY environment variable is not set.

What it means

Raised by get_api_key() in tradingagents/dataflows/alpha_vantage_common.py when the ALPHA_VANTAGE_API_KEY environment variable is unset or empty. It is an AlphaVantageNotConfiguredError, a subclass of VendorNotConfiguredError (which is also a ValueError), so the router treats it as 'vendor unavailable' and tries the next vendor in the chain. It only surfaces to you when no configured vendor can serve the request.

Solutions

  1. Export the key in the shell where you run the app: export ALPHA_VANTAGE_API_KEY="yourkey" (get a free key at https://www.alphavantage.co/support/#api-key)
  2. If the project uses a .env file, add ALPHA_VANTAGE_API_KEY=... there and confirm it is loaded before dataflows code runs
  3. For Docker/CI, pass the variable explicitly: docker run -e ALPHA_VANTAGE_API_KEY=... or set it in the pipeline secrets
  4. If you do not want Alpha Vantage, change config data_vendors (or tool_vendors) for the category back to 'yfinance' or 'default' so alpha_vantage is never attempted

Example fix

# before
# (ALPHA_VANTAGE_API_KEY not set, data_vendors="alpha_vantage")
# -> AlphaVantageNotConfiguredError: ALPHA_VANTAGE_API_KEY environment variable is not set.

# after
export ALPHA_VANTAGE_API_KEY="yourkey"   # in shell / .env / docker -e
# or switch the vendor
# config: {"data_vendors": {"stock_data": "yfinance"}}
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

import os
from tradingagents.dataflows.alpha_vantage_common import AlphaVantageNotConfiguredError

def alpha_vantage_ready() -> bool:
    return bool(os.getenv("ALPHA_VANTAGE_API_KEY"))

Type guard

def is_configured_env(name: str) -> bool:
    v = os.getenv(name)
    return isinstance(v, str) and v.strip() != ""

Try / catch

try:
    get_historical_prices("AAPL", "2025-01-10", "2025-01-15")
except AlphaVantageNotConfiguredError as e:  # also a ValueError
    logger.warning("Alpha Vantage skipped: %s", e)
    # fall back to yfinance explicitly, or report data unavailable

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Calling any Alpha Vantage-backed tool (get_stock_data_indicators, get_historical_prices, etc.) with data_vendors containing 'alpha_vantage' while the ALPHA_VANTAGE_API_KEY env var is not exported, is set to an empty string, or is only set in a shell where the process wasn't restarted.

Common situations: New machine/container without the key in .env or the shell profile; running in CI or Docker where the env var was not passed (--env/-e omitted); typos in the variable name; assuming yfinance works the same without keys after switching the data_vendors config to alpha_vantage.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of TauricResearch/TradingAgents@a33fd4c0f1 (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/85f8e5815b0b0a85. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at tradingagents/dataflows/alpha_vantage_common.py:32

# CLI/agents indefinitely (#990).
REQUEST_TIMEOUT = 30


class AlphaVantageNotConfiguredError(VendorNotConfiguredError):
    """Raised when Alpha Vantage is selected but no API key is configured.

    A VendorNotConfiguredError (and thus still a ValueError), so the routing
    layer's "vendor unavailable" handling and existing ValueError callers both
    keep working.
    """
    pass


def get_api_key() -> str:
    """Retrieve the API key for Alpha Vantage from environment variables."""
    api_key = os.getenv("ALPHA_VANTAGE_API_KEY")
    if not api_key:
        raise AlphaVantageNotConfiguredError(
            "ALPHA_VANTAGE_API_KEY environment variable is not set."
        )
    return api_key

def format_datetime_for_api(date_input) -> str:
    """Convert various date formats to YYYYMMDDTHHMM format required by Alpha Vantage API."""
    if isinstance(date_input, str):
        # If already in correct format, return as-is
        if len(date_input) == 13 and 'T' in date_input:
            return date_input
        # Try to parse common date formats
        try:
            dt = datetime.strptime(date_input, "%Y-%m-%d")
            return dt.strftime("%Y%m%dT0000")
        except ValueError:
            try:
                dt = datetime.strptime(date_input, "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M")
                return dt.strftime("%Y%m%dT%H%M")

View on GitHub (pinned to a33fd4c0f1)