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Adding API Keys

A. Ghafoor Sayyed November 9, 2026 3 min read Graphify Graphify Api-Keys Configuration Llm

Configure LLM API keys for full graph semantic extraction of markdown, docs PDFs, and images.

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Adding API Keys

Configure LLM API keys to enable semantic extraction of markdown, documentation, PDFs, and images for the full graph.

🔑 Supported Providers

ProviderEnvironment VariableModel (default)Free Tier
Google GeminiGEMINI_API_KEY or GOOGLE_API_KEYgemini-1.5-flash60 req/min, 1M tokens/day
OpenAIOPENAI_API_KEYgpt-4o-mini$5 credit new accounts
AnthropicANTHROPIC_API_KEYclaude-3.5-sonnetNone
Moonshot (Kimi)MOONSHOT_API_KEYkimi-k2Generous
DeepSeekDEEPSEEK_API_KEYdeepseek-chatGenerous

⚙️ Configuration Methods

Method 1: Shell Profile (Recommended - Persistent)

1# Add to ~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc, or ~/.profile
2export GEMINI_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"
3
4# Reload
5source ~/.bashrc
6
7# Verify
8echo $GEMINI_API_KEY

Method 2: Project .env File (Per-Project)

1# In project root
2cat > .env << 'EOF'
3GEMINI_API_KEY=your-api-key-here
4EOF
5
6# Or use .env.local for secrets (gitignored)
7echo "GEMINI_API_KEY=your-api-key-here" > .env.local

Graphify auto-loads .env, .env.local, .env.*.local from project root.

Method 3: Per-Command (Temporary)

1GEMINI_API_KEY="your-key" graphify .
2GEMINI_API_KEY="your-key" graphify update .

Method 4: Graphify Config File

1# ~/.config/graphify/config.yaml
2llm:
3  provider: gemini
4  api_key_env: GEMINI_API_KEY
5  model: gemini-1.5-flash

🔐 Getting API Keys

Google Gemini (Recommended - Best Free Tier)

  1. Go to Google AI Studio
  2. Sign in with Google account
  3. Click “Create API Key”
  4. Copy key (starts with AIza...)
1export GEMINI_API_KEY="AIza..."

OpenAI

  1. Go to OpenAI Platform
  2. Sign in / create account
  3. Click “Create new secret key”
  4. Copy key (starts with sk-...)
1export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-..."

Anthropic

  1. Go to Anthropic Console
  2. Sign in / create account
  3. Click “Create Key”
  4. Copy key (starts with sk-ant-...)
1export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-..."

✅ Verification

1# Test the key works
2graphify query "test connection" --backend=gemini --model=gemini-1.5-flash
3
4# Should return a response (uses 1 API call)
5
6# Or test with explicit provider
7graphify query "test" --backend=openai --model=gpt-4o-mini

🔄 Using with Full Graph

 1# 1. Set key (any method above)
 2export GEMINI_API_KEY="your-key"
 3
 4# 2. Build full graph
 5mkdir -p graphify-out && touch graphify-out/.graphify-activity
 6graphify .
 7
 8# 3. Query docs + code
 9graphify query "what does the youtube-content skill do?"
10
11# 4. Rebuild when docs change
12graphify update .

🚨 Troubleshooting

IssueSolution
no LLM API key foundCheck env var name: GEMINI_API_KEY (not GEMINI_KEY)
Invalid API keyRegenerate key; check no extra spaces/newlines
Quota exceededWait for reset; switch provider; use --code-only
Model not foundUse supported model name (see table above)
Rate limitedAdd delay; use --code-only for interim work

💡 Best Practices

  1. Use Gemini — Best free tier (1M tokens/day)
  2. Use .env.local — Gitignored, per-project, not committed
  3. Rotate keys periodically — Especially if committed accidentally
  4. Monitor usage — Check provider dashboard
  5. Fallback to code-only — When quota exhausted

Next Steps

Code-Only vs Full
Rebuilding