"Laravel 10 - API key not recognized in .env file"

Question

I'm using Laravel Framework 10.15.0.

I tried loading my API key in the following way:

$apiKeyOpenAI = env('OPENAI_API_KEY');
        $client = OpenAI::client($apiKeyOpenAI);

In my .env file, the API key is clearly defined:

OPENAI_API_KEY=xx-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

However, when executing my application on the server, I get that $apiKeyOpenAI is null.

However, I do have OPENAI_API_KEY in my .env file.I've checked it!

I tried clearing the cache php artisan config:clear but I still get the error:

TypeError

  OpenAI::client(): Argument #1 ($apiKey) must be of type string, null given, called in /var/www/demo-website/app/Console/Commands/AdminCommand.php on line 151

  at vendor/openai-php/client/src/OpenAI.php:13
      9▕{
     10▕ /**11▕      * Creates a new Open AI Client with the given API token.
     12▕*/
  ➜ 13▕ public static function client(string $apiKey, string $organization = null): Client
     14▕{
     15▕ return self::factory()
     16▕ ->withApiKey($apiKey)
     17▕ ->withOrganization($organization)

  1 app/Console/Commands/AdminCommand.php:151
      OpenAI::client()

  2 app/Console/Commands/AdminCommand.php:39
      App\Console\Commands\AdminCommand::generateContentUsingOpenAI()

Any suggestions what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks for your reply!

Update

After deploying to the server, I need to run this script to make it work:

Route::get('/clear', function() {
    Artisan::call('cache:clear');
    Artisan::call('config:clear');

    return "Cache, Config is cleared";
})->middleware(['auth', 'admin']);

On deployment, this script will also run automatically:

#!/bin/sh
set -e

echo "Deploying application ..."

# Enter maintenance mode
(php artisan down) || true
    # Update codebase
    git fetch origin deploy
    git reset --hard origin/deploy

    # Install dependencies based on lock file
    composer install --no-interaction --prefer-dist --optimize-autoloader

    #Migrate database
    php artisan migrate --force

    # Note: If you're using queue workers, this is the place to restart them.
    #...


    # Clear cache
    # php artisan optimize

    php artisan config:cache
    php artisan route: clear
    php artisan route:cache
    php artisan view:clear
    php artisan view:cache
    php artisan auth:clear-resets
    php artisan cache:clear
    php artisan config: clear

    #Generate sitemap
    # php artisan sitemap:generate

    # Reload PHP to update opcache
    echo "" | sudo -S service php8.1-fpm reload
# Exit maintenance mode
php artisan up

echo "Application deployed!"

Answer 1

Do not use env() outside of config/*.php files. If you ever run php artisan config:cache (which should usually be done in a production environment) then env() will stop working outside of these files (for most cases says; the env key can still be loaded, but this is not typical for most Laravel setups). This is why you need to run php artisan config:clear so that env() does not return null.

Add a key in config/app.php (or any other file in the config/ directory):

'open_ai_api_key' => env('OPENAI_API_KEY', null)

Then, when you want to use this key, use config()Helper function:

$apiKeyOpenAI = config('app.open_ai_api_key');
$client = OpenAI::client($apiKeyOpenAI);

Note: app is the file name, open_ai_api_key is the array index. If you use a different file, such as config/services.php, then you should use config('services.open_ai_api_key')

Please refer to the documentation for details:

https://laravel.com/docs/10.x/configuration#configuration-caching