microsoft/semantic-kernel · error · ServiceInitializationError

Failed to create OpenAI settings.

Error message

Failed to create OpenAI settings.

What it means

Raised in OpenAITextToAudio.__init__ when the OpenAISettings pydantic model fails validation during construction. The original pydantic ValidationError is attached as __cause__ and contains the field-level details. Because every OpenAISettings field is Optional, this fires only on a genuine validation failure, not on a missing model id.

Source

Thrown at python/semantic_kernel/connectors/ai/open_ai/services/open_ai_text_to_audio.py:58

            org_id: The optional org ID to use. If provided will override,
                the env vars or .env file value.
            default_headers: The default headers mapping of string keys to
                string values for HTTP requests. (Optional)
            async_client: An existing client to use. (Optional)
            env_file_path: Use the environment settings file as
                a fallback to environment variables. (Optional)
            env_file_encoding: The encoding of the environment settings file. (Optional)
        """
        try:
            openai_settings = OpenAISettings(
                api_key=api_key,
                org_id=org_id,
                text_to_audio_model_id=ai_model_id,
                env_file_path=env_file_path,
                env_file_encoding=env_file_encoding,
            )
        except ValidationError as ex:
            raise ServiceInitializationError("Failed to create OpenAI settings.", ex) from ex
        if not openai_settings.text_to_audio_model_id:
            raise ServiceInitializationError("The OpenAI text to audio model ID is required.")
        super().__init__(
            ai_model_id=openai_settings.text_to_audio_model_id,
            api_key=openai_settings.api_key.get_secret_value() if openai_settings.api_key else None,
            ai_model_type=OpenAIModelTypes.TEXT_TO_AUDIO,
            org_id=openai_settings.org_id,
            service_id=service_id,
            default_headers=default_headers,
            client=async_client,
        )

    @classmethod
    def from_dict(cls: type[T_], settings: dict[str, Any]) -> T_:
        """Initialize an Open AI service from a dictionary of settings.

        Args:
            settings: A dictionary of settings for the service.

View on GitHub (pinned to c028a0c7dc)

Solutions

1. Read the chained cause: except ServiceInitializationError as e: print(e.__cause__.errors())
2. Check the .env file for OPENAI_* entries with broken quoting or whitespace
3. Pass api_key as str and verify env_file_encoding matches the file
4. Reproduce by instantiating OpenAISettings(api_key=..., text_to_audio_model_id=...) in isolation

Example fix

# before
service = OpenAITextToAudio(env_file_path="broken.env")
# raises ServiceInitializationError: Failed to create OpenAI settings.

# after
service = OpenAITextToAudio(ai_model_id="tts-1", api_key="sk-...")

from semantic_kernel.connectors.ai.open_ai.settings.open_ai_settings import OpenAISettings

try:
    OpenAISettings(api_key=api_key, text_to_audio_model_id=ai_model_id)
except Exception as e:
    raise ValueError(f"OpenAISettings invalid: {e}") from e

from pydantic import ValidationError
from semantic_kernel.connectors.ai.open_ai.settings.open_ai_settings import OpenAISettings


def settings_are_valid(**kwargs) -> bool:
    try:
        OpenAISettings(**kwargs)
        return True
    except ValidationError:
        return False

from semantic_kernel.exceptions.service_exceptions import ServiceInitializationError

try:
    service = OpenAITextToAudio(api_key=api_key)
except ServiceInitializationError as e:
    fields = e.__cause__.errors() if e.__cause__ is not None else []
    raise RuntimeError(f"OpenAI settings invalid: {fields}") from e

When it happens

Trigger: Constructing OpenAITextToAudio with an argument pydantic rejects (bad type for api_key/org_id), or an env_file_path pointing to a .env whose values fail validation, or env var binding that KernelBaseSettings cannot coerce.

Common situations: Malformed .env file; secret injected in a non-string type; env_file_encoding mismatch; pydantic v2 stricter coercion rejecting a value that previously auto-coerced.

Related errors

• Failed to create OpenAI settings.
• Failed to create OpenAI settings.
• Failed to create Copilot Studio Agent settings: {exc}
• Failed to create Azure OpenAI settings: {exc}
• Failed to validate Google AI settings: {e}

AI-assisted analysis of microsoft/semantic-kernel@c028a0c7dc (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f16057764c6fd739. Report an issue: GitHub.