microsoft/semantic-kernel · error · ServiceInitializationError

Failed to validate Google AI settings: {e}

Error message

Failed to validate Google AI settings: {e}

What it means

Raised in the GoogleAITextCompletion constructor when GoogleAISettings(...) fails Pydantic validation. The ValidationError (wrapped in ServiceInitializationError with the detail string) reports which fields failed type or format validation. GoogleAISettings is a Pydantic KernelBaseSettings model with prefix GOOGLE_AI_ that validates api_key (SecretStr), use_vertexai (bool), and related fields at construction time.

Source

Thrown at python/semantic_kernel/connectors/ai/google/google_ai/services/google_ai_text_completion.py:85

            client (Client | None): The Google AI Client to use for break glass scenarios. (Optional)
            env_file_path (str | None): The path to the .env file. (Optional)
            env_file_encoding (str | None): The encoding of the .env file. (Optional)

        Raises:
            ServiceInitializationError: If an error occurs during initialization.
        """
        try:
            google_ai_settings = GoogleAISettings(
                gemini_model_id=gemini_model_id,
                api_key=api_key,
                cloud_project_id=project_id,
                cloud_region=region,
                use_vertexai=use_vertexai,
                env_file_path=env_file_path,
                env_file_encoding=env_file_encoding,
            )
        except ValidationError as e:
            raise ServiceInitializationError(f"Failed to validate Google AI settings: {e}") from e

        if not google_ai_settings.gemini_model_id:
            raise ServiceInitializationError("The Google AI Gemini model ID is required.")

        if not client:
            if google_ai_settings.use_vertexai and not google_ai_settings.cloud_project_id:
                raise ServiceInitializationError("Project ID must be provided when use_vertexai is True.")
            if google_ai_settings.use_vertexai and not google_ai_settings.cloud_region:
                raise ServiceInitializationError("Region must be provided when use_vertexai is True.")
            if not google_ai_settings.use_vertexai and not google_ai_settings.api_key:
                raise ServiceInitializationError("The API key is required when use_vertexai is False.")

        super().__init__(
            ai_model_id=google_ai_settings.gemini_model_id,
            service_id=service_id or google_ai_settings.gemini_model_id,
            service_settings=google_ai_settings,
            client=client,
        )

View on GitHub (pinned to c028a0c7dc)

Solutions

1. Read the full ValidationError message (in the {e} substitution) to identify the exact field that failed.
2. Fix the offending environment variable or constructor argument to match the declared Pydantic type.
3. Validate your .env file values independently before constructing the service.

Example fix

# before: env has GOOGLE_AI_USE_VERTEXAI=yes (ambiguous)
# after:  env has GOOGLE_AI_USE_VERTEXAI=true

from semantic_kernel.connectors.ai.google.google_ai.google_ai_settings import GoogleAISettings
from pydantic import ValidationError

try:
    GoogleAISettings()
except ValidationError as e:
    print(f'Settings validation failed: {e}')

try:
    service = GoogleAITextCompletion(...)
except ServiceInitializationError as e:
    if 'Failed to validate Google AI settings' in str(e):
        # the inner ValidationError details are in the message
        logging.error(f'Google AI settings invalid: {e}')
        # fix env/args then retry construction
    raise

When it happens

Trigger: Constructing GoogleAITextCompletion with arguments or environment variables that fail Pydantic field validation — e.g. passing a non-bool to use_vertexai, a malformed value for api_key, or an env var that cannot be coerced to the declared type.

Common situations: GOOGLE_AI_USE_VERTEXAI set to a non-bool string that Pydantic cannot coerce; GOOGLE_AI_API_KEY empty after SecretStr validation; passing incompatible keyword argument types; partial/invalid .env file.

Related errors

• Failed to validate Google AI settings: {e}
• Failed to create Ollama settings.
• Failed to initialize the Amazon Bedrock Agent settings: {e}
• Failed to create Copilot Studio Agent settings: {exc}
• Failed to create Azure OpenAI settings: {exc}

AI-assisted analysis of microsoft/semantic-kernel@c028a0c7dc (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5c3975a9061b59dc. Report an issue: GitHub.