crewAIInc/crewAI · error · ValueError

APIFY_API_TOKEN environment variable is not set. Please set

Error message

APIFY_API_TOKEN environment variable is not set. Please set it to your API key, to learn how to get it, see https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/api

What it means

ApifyActorsTool's constructor checks os.environ for APIFY_API_TOKEN before doing anything else and raises this ValueError with a docs link if it is missing. The token is required because the underlying langchain-apify tool authenticates every actor run against your Apify account.

Source

Thrown at lib/crewai-tools/src/crewai_tools/tools/apify_actors_tool/apify_actors_tool.py:64

            tool = ApifyActorsTool(actor_name="apify/rag-web-browser")

            results = tool.run(run_input={"query": "What is CrewAI?", "maxResults": 5})
            for result in results:
                print(f"URL: {result['metadata']['url']}")
                print(f"Content: {result.get('markdown', 'N/A')[:100]}...")
    """
    actor_tool: _ApifyActorsTool = Field(description="Apify Actor Tool")
    package_dependencies: list[str] = Field(default_factory=lambda: ["langchain-apify"])

    def __init__(self, actor_name: str, *args: Any, **kwargs: Any) -> None:
        if not os.environ.get("APIFY_API_TOKEN"):
            msg = (
                "APIFY_API_TOKEN environment variable is not set. "
                "Please set it to your API key, to learn how to get it, "
                "see https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/api"
            )
            raise ValueError(msg)

        try:
            from langchain_apify import ApifyActorsTool as _ApifyActorsTool
        except ImportError as e:
            raise ImportError(
                "Could not import langchain_apify python package. "
                "Please install it with `pip install langchain-apify` or `uv add langchain-apify`."
            ) from e
        actor_tool = _ApifyActorsTool(actor_name)

        kwargs.update(
            {
                "name": actor_tool.name,
                "description": actor_tool.description,
                "args_schema": actor_tool.args_schema,
                "actor_tool": actor_tool,
            }
        )

View on GitHub (pinned to 754d7323be)

Solutions

1. Export the token: `export APIFY_API_TOKEN=apify_api_...` (get it from Apify Console > Settings > API).
2. Or load it from your secret store/dotenv before constructing the tool.
3. Verify in-process: `python -c "import os; print(os.getenv('APIFY_API_TOKEN') is not None)"` in the same interpreter.
4. In CI/Docker, add the variable to the job spec or compose environment.

Example fix

# before
tool = ApifyActorsTool("my-actor")

# after
from dotenv import load_dotenv
load_dotenv()  # .env contains APIFY_API_TOKEN=...
tool = ApifyActorsTool("my-actor")

import os

if not os.environ.get("APIFY_API_TOKEN"):
    raise SystemExit("APIFY_API_TOKEN is required; get it from Apify Console > Settings > API")

try:
    tool = ApifyActorsTool("my-actor")
except ValueError as e:
    if "APIFY_API_TOKEN" in str(e):
        os.environ["APIFY_API_TOKEN"] = secret_store.get("apify")
        tool = ApifyActorsTool("my-actor")
    else:
        raise

When it happens

Trigger: Instantiating ApifyActorsTool(actor_name) without APIFY_API_TOKEN in the environment; token defined in a .env file that the process never loaded; CI/secrets not wired to the container.

Common situations: Forgot to export the token; token named differently (APIFY_TOKEN vs APIFY_API_TOKEN); running in a notebook where the env was set after kernel start; deploying without the secret mapped.

Related errors

• API key must be provided either through constructor or MINDS
• BRAVE_API_KEY environment variable is required
• Zapier Actions API key is required
• BRAVE_API_KEY environment variable is required for BraveSear
• BRIGHT_DATA_API_KEY environment variable is required.

AI-assisted analysis of crewAIInc/crewAI@754d7323be (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/76fa1dbbf4f6aaa2. Report an issue: GitHub.