OPENAI_API_KEY must not be left blank

[vmayoral]

⚠️ Important: The OPENAI_API_KEY must not be left blank. It should contain either "sk-123" (as a placeholder) or your actual API key.

[Mery-Sanz]

When MR is approved I will close this issue

[Mery-Sanz]

#38

[th3f001]

Where is CAI reading the .env file from?
i.e. from the folder where the cai command is invoked
i.e. from the user /home folder
i.e. from the workspace folder
i.e. from the cai venv folder
i.e. (any other folder)

I'm asking because I've correctly populated the .env file in the directory from which I launched cai....but whatever I do inside cai ...I hit the following:

openai.OpenAIError: The api_key client option must be set either by passing api_key to the client or by setting the OPENAI_API_KEY environment variable

Platform: MacOS
venv mgmt: homebrew miniconda

[SoyGema]

Hello @th3f001 faced the same problem for a while . I followed getting started

brew update && \
    brew install git python@3.12

# Create virtual environment
python3.12 -m venv cai_env

# Install the package from the local directory
source cai_env/bin/activate && pip install cai-framework

# Generate a .env file and set up with defaults
echo -e 'OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-1234"\nANTHROPIC_API_KEY=""\nOLLAMA=""\nPROMPT_TOOLKIT_NO_CPR=1\nCAI_STREAM=false' > .env

# Launch CAI
cai  # first launch it can take up to 30 seconds

I did it from my Documents folder and the .env file was created there. Then I launched cai from there. So I guess that to answer your question, it shall be something like from the folder where the cai command is invoked . That folder should also contain .env file

Conclussion
CAI looks for the .env file in the current directory where you execute the command, and if it doesn't find it, it
searches upward in the directory hierarchy. Since you run CAI from some subdirectory of /Users/me/Documents/, it
finds the file /Users/me/Documents/.env

The virtual environment only contains the installed Python packages, not application configurations like .env files.

[vmayoral]

Thanks for the well written clarification @SoyGema. Let me know if you can land a contribution in the repo that helps improve the experience based in your experience. Happy to review it!

[SoyGema]

Hey @vmayoral Im preparing materials for improving this. Approaching the issue from multiple perspectives ( improve README.md, verbose traces, etc ) Hopefully it can be ready soon!