Environment Variable Setup

Environment Variable Setup

To use Udility Diffuser, you must provide an OpenRouter API Key. This key allows the package to communicate with the Meta Llama-3.1/3.5 models via OpenRouter's API.

Obtaining an API Key

1. Visit OpenRouter.ai.
2. Create an account or sign in.
3. Navigate to the Keys section in your dashboard and generate a new API key.
4. Copy this key; you will need to set it as an environment variable named OPENROUTER_API_KEY.

Configuration Methods

You can configure the API key using one of the following methods, depending on your workflow.

Method 1: Inline via Python (Recommended for Notebooks/Colab)

If you are working in a Jupyter Notebook or Google Colab, you can set the environment variable directly in your script before importing the diffuser module.

import os

# Set your API key
os.environ['OPENROUTER_API_KEY'] = 'your_openrouter_api_key_here'

# Now you can use Udility
from Udility import diffuser

Method 2: Persistent Setup (Terminal/Shell)

To avoid setting the key every time you run a script, you can export it to your system's environment.

macOS and Linux: Add the following line to your shell profile (e.g., ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc):

export OPENROUTER_API_KEY='your_openrouter_api_key_here'

Windows (Command Prompt):

setx OPENROUTER_API_KEY "your_openrouter_api_key_here"

Method 3: Using a .env file

For local development, you can create a .env file in your project root:

OPENROUTER_API_KEY=your_openrouter_api_key_here

Note: If using this method, ensure you have python-dotenv installed and call load_dotenv() at the start of your application.

Error Handling

If the environment variable is not set or is inaccessible, the Udility.diffuser module will raise an EnvironmentError when it is initialized:

EnvironmentError: The OpenRouter API key is not set. Please set it as an environment variable.

If you encounter this error, verify that OPENROUTER_API_KEY is correctly spelled and that the variable is set in the specific shell or environment where your Python process is running.