stanford-oval/storm · error · RuntimeError

You must supply azure_ai_search_index_name or set environmen

Error message

You must supply azure_ai_search_index_name or set environment variable AZURE_AI_SEARCH_INDEX_NAME

What it means

Raised by AzureAISearchRM.__init__ when the search index name is neither passed as azure_ai_search_index_name nor available via the AZURE_AI_SEARCH_INDEX_NAME environment variable. The index identifies which document collection to query, so the constructor refuses to continue without it.

Source

Thrown at knowledge_storm/rm.py:1168

            )
        elif azure_ai_search_api_key:
            self.azure_ai_search_api_key = azure_ai_search_api_key
        else:
            self.azure_ai_search_api_key = os.environ["AZURE_AI_SEARCH_API_KEY"]

        if not azure_ai_search_url and not os.environ.get("AZURE_AI_SEARCH_URL"):
            raise RuntimeError(
                "You must supply azure_ai_search_url or set environment variable AZURE_AI_SEARCH_URL"
            )
        elif azure_ai_search_url:
            self.azure_ai_search_url = azure_ai_search_url
        else:
            self.azure_ai_search_url = os.environ["AZURE_AI_SEARCH_URL"]

        if not azure_ai_search_index_name and not os.environ.get(
            "AZURE_AI_SEARCH_INDEX_NAME"
        ):
            raise RuntimeError(
                "You must supply azure_ai_search_index_name or set environment variable AZURE_AI_SEARCH_INDEX_NAME"
            )
        elif azure_ai_search_index_name:
            self.azure_ai_search_index_name = azure_ai_search_index_name
        else:
            self.azure_ai_search_index_name = os.environ["AZURE_AI_SEARCH_INDEX_NAME"]

        self.usage = 0

        # If not None, is_valid_source shall be a function that takes a URL and returns a boolean.
        if is_valid_source:
            self.is_valid_source = is_valid_source
        else:
            self.is_valid_source = lambda x: True

    def get_usage_and_reset(self):
        usage = self.usage
        self.usage = 0

View on GitHub (pinned to fb951af774)

Solutions

export AZURE_AI_SEARCH_INDEX_NAME="<your-index-name>"
Or pass it explicitly: AzureAISearchRM(azure_ai_search_api_key=..., azure_ai_search_url=..., azure_ai_search_index_name="my-index")
Verify the index exists in the Azure portal (Search service > Indexes) and matches the name you supply

Example fix

# before
rm = AzureAISearchRM(azure_ai_search_api_key=KEY, azure_ai_search_url=URL)

# after
rm = AzureAISearchRM(azure_ai_search_api_key=KEY, azure_ai_search_url=URL, azure_ai_search_index_name="my-index")

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

import os

def has_azure_index_name(explicit=None):
    return bool(explicit or os.environ.get("AZURE_AI_SEARCH_INDEX_NAME"))

assert has_azure_index_name(), "Missing AZURE_AI_SEARCH_INDEX_NAME"

Try / catch

try:
    rm = AzureAISearchRM(azure_ai_search_api_key=K, azure_ai_search_url=U)
except RuntimeError as e:
    if "AZURE_AI_SEARCH_INDEX_NAME" in str(e):
        raise SystemExit("Set AZURE_AI_SEARCH_INDEX_NAME to an existing index")
    raise

Prevention

Add all three Azure vars to your deployment env template so none is forgotten
Confirm the index exists in the portal before wiring the retriever
Use a config object/dataclass that requires index_name at construction

When it happens

Trigger: Constructing AzureAISearchRM with no azure_ai_search_index_name argument and no AZURE_AI_SEARCH_INDEX_NAME env var; this is the last of the three lazy config checks (key, url, index).

Common situations: Key and URL configured but index name forgotten; index name typo'd earlier so the developer removed it; multi-index deployments where the index name is only known per-environment and wasn't propagated to the container/CI env.

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 stanford-oval/storm@fb951af774 (2026-08-28). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2553ac8e1c0bd3da. Report an issue: GitHub.