Tencent/WeKnora · error

API key is required for Exa provider

Error message

API key is required for Exa provider

What it means

validateProviderParameters requires a non-empty APIKey for the Exa web-search provider. Exa's API is key-authenticated, so creating, updating, or test-validating an Exa provider without params.APIKey fails with this error.

Source

Thrown at internal/application/service/web_search_provider.go:177

		}
		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:
		if err := infra_web_search.ValidateSearxngBaseURL(params.BaseURL); err != nil {
			return err
		}
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to 988cbb0330)

Solutions

1. Set params.APIKey to a valid Exa API key from the Exa dashboard before saving the provider.
2. Check config binding/marshalling so the key lands in the APIKey field, not a sibling field.
3. Ensure the secret is present in the environment/secret store at startup.
4. Strip quotes/whitespace that can make the loaded value look empty or invalid after trimming.

Example fix

// before
{ "type": "exa", "apiKey": "" }
// after
{ "type": "exa", "apiKey": "<your-exa-api-key>" }

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

err := svc.CreateProvider(ctx, p)
if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "required for Exa") {
	// prompt the user for their Exa API key before retrying
	return fieldError("apiKey", err)
}

When it happens

Trigger: CreateProvider or UpdateProvider with type 'exa' and APIKey == ""; tests (e.g. TestValidateProviderParametersExa) that construct Exa params without a key.

Common situations: Signing up for Exa but not copying the API key into config; rotating keys and leaving the field empty temporarily; YAML/JSON config where the key is nested under the wrong field so it unmarshals empty.

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 Baidu 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/9b1d95ac790ba62f. Report an issue: GitHub.