Tencent/WeKnora · error

API key is required for Baidu provider

Error message

API key is required for Baidu provider

What it means

Same validation gate as the other providers: validateProviderParameters rejects a Baidu web-search provider whose params.APIKey is empty. Baidu's search API is authenticated with an API key, so a provider record cannot be created, updated, or tested without one.

Source

Thrown at internal/application/service/web_search_provider.go:173

		}
	case types.WebSearchProviderTypeGoogle:
		if params.APIKey == "" {
			return fmt.Errorf("API key is required for Google provider")
		}
		if params.EngineID == "" {
			return fmt.Errorf("engine ID is required for Google provider")
		}
	case types.WebSearchProviderTypeTavily:
		if params.APIKey == "" {
			return fmt.Errorf("API key is required for Tavily provider")
		}
	case types.WebSearchProviderTypeOllama:
		if params.APIKey == "" {
			return fmt.Errorf("API key is required for Ollama provider")
		}
	case types.WebSearchProviderTypeBaidu:
		if params.APIKey == "" {
			return fmt.Errorf("API key is required for Baidu provider")
		}
	case types.WebSearchProviderTypeExa:
		if params.APIKey == "" {
			return fmt.Errorf("API key is required for Exa provider")
		}
	case types.WebSearchProviderTypeZhipu:
		if err := infra_web_search.ValidateZhipuParameters(params); err != nil {
			return err
		}
	case types.WebSearchProviderTypeMetaso:
		if err := infra_web_search.ValidateMetasoParameters(params); err != nil {
			return err
		}
	case types.WebSearchProviderTypeDuckDuckGo:
		// No API key required
	case types.WebSearchProviderTypeKeenable:
		// No API key required (keyless by default; an optional key lifts the rate limit)
	case types.WebSearchProviderTypeSearxng:

View on GitHub (pinned to 988cbb0330)

Solutions

1. Obtain a Baidu API key and populate params.APIKey before calling CreateProvider/UpdateProvider.
2. Verify the environment variable or secret backing the key is set in the deployment and mapped to the APIKey field.
3. Trim the input; if your client sends whitespace, send the real key.
4. If key should be optional for some Baidu mode, adjust the validation case accordingly.

Example fix

// before
params.APIKey = os.Getenv("BAIDU_API_KEY") // unset -> ""
// after
key := os.Getenv("BAIDU_API_KEY")
if key == "" { return errors.New("BAIDU_API_KEY must be set before creating Baidu provider") }
params.APIKey = key

if provider.Type == types.WebSearchProviderTypeBaidu && strings.TrimSpace(provider.APIKey) == "" {
	return errors.New("baidu provider requires an API key")
}

if err := svc.UpdateProvider(ctx, id, params); err != nil {
	var ve *ValidationError
	if errors.As(err, &ve) { /* show apiKey field error */ }
	return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: CreateProvider/UpdateProvider with type 'baidu' and APIKey == ""; validation test paths that exercise the Baidu case with no key supplied.

Common situations: Users register a Baidu provider before obtaining a Baidu API key; the key env var is unset at deploy time and bound as empty string; a migration or import writes a Baidu provider row without credentials.

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

• API key is required for Ollama provider
• API key is required for Exa provider
• API key is required for Metaso provider
• query is empty
• API key is required for Exa provider

AI-assisted analysis of Tencent/WeKnora@988cbb0330 (2026-09-02). Data as JSON: /api/errors/77adf801ee380e00. Report an issue: GitHub.