What causes "[gateway] SerpAPI web search API key is not configured." in musistudio/claude-code-router?

Set SERPAPI_API_KEY in the gateway's runtime environment

[gateway] SerpAPI web search API key is not configured.

Error message

[gateway] SerpAPI web search API key is not configured.

What it means

The SerpAPI web search provider was selected, but SERPAPI_API_KEY is missing from the resolved environment. The provider returns empty results rather than failing the request.

Source

Thrown at packages/core/src/gateway/features/hosted-web-search/discovery.ts:612

    return [];
  }
  const raw = await fetchJson(searchEnv(input, "SERPER_SEARCH_ENDPOINT") || "https://google.serper.dev/search", {
    body: JSON.stringify({ num: input.count, q: input.query }),
    headers: {
      "content-type": "application/json",
      "x-api-key": apiKey
    },
    method: "POST",
    signal: AbortSignal.timeout(input.timeoutMs)
  });
  const items = isRecord(raw) && Array.isArray(raw.organic) ? raw.organic : [];
  return items.map((item) => webSearchResult(item, "title", "link", "snippet")).filter(isWebSearchProviderResult);
}

async function searchSerpApi(input: WebSearchProviderInput): Promise<WebSearchProviderResult[]> {
  const apiKey = searchEnv(input, "SERPAPI_API_KEY");
  if (!apiKey) {
    console.warn("[gateway] SerpAPI web search API key is not configured.");
    return [];
  }
  const url = new URL(searchEnv(input, "SERPAPI_SEARCH_ENDPOINT") || "https://serpapi.com/search.json");
  url.searchParams.set("api_key", apiKey);
  url.searchParams.set("engine", "google");
  url.searchParams.set("q", input.query);
  url.searchParams.set("num", String(input.count));
  const raw = await fetchJson(url.toString(), { signal: AbortSignal.timeout(input.timeoutMs) });
  const items = isRecord(raw) && Array.isArray(raw.organic_results) ? raw.organic_results : [];
  return items.map((item) => webSearchResult(item, "title", "link", "snippet")).filter(isWebSearchProviderResult);
}

async function searchTavily(input: WebSearchProviderInput): Promise<WebSearchProviderResult[]> {
  const apiKey = searchEnv(input, "TAVILY_API_KEY");
  if (!apiKey) {
    console.warn("[gateway] Tavily web search API key is not configured.");
    return [];
  }

View on GitHub (pinned to 99f24806c6)

Solutions

Set SERPAPI_API_KEY in the gateway's runtime environment
Verify with a quick curl 'https://serpapi.com/search.json?api_key=...&q=test' that the key works
Restart the gateway process

Example fix

# before
WEB_SEARCH_PROVIDER=serpapi

# after
SERPAPI_API_KEY=<serpapi-key>
WEB_SEARCH_PROVIDER=serpapi

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if (!process.env.SERPAPI_API_KEY) throw new Error("SERPAPI_API_KEY required for serpapi provider");

Prevention

Validate keys at startup
Sync secrets into the service environment via deployment tooling
Test one search after config changes

When it happens

Trigger: Configuring web search provider to "serpapi" without SERPAPI_API_KEY; key set only in a local .env not loaded in production.

Common situations: Signing up at serpapi.com but never exporting the key; containerized gateway missing the secret; key rotation leaving the env stale.

Understand the failure class

Background: "environment variable is not set" and "Missing keys in environment" errors: what missing required env var messages mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 28 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of musistudio/claude-code-router@99f24806c6 (2026-08-27). Data as JSON: /api/errors/01697da2fcb0e8e2. Report an issue: GitHub.