Key management

Store a key in the environment (for one session):

export API_KEY="your-api-key"

To store a key across sessions, add the export API_KEY="your-api-key" statement to ~/.bash_profile or ~/.profile.

Common key variables for local setup

export OPENAI_KEY="XXX"  
export GITHUB_TOKEN="XXX"

Access the key in Python:

import os

api_key = os.environ.get('API_KEY')

Note

Advantage: confidential keys are not saved in the script and not shared with others.

---
title: "Key management"
---

Store a key in the environment (for one session):

```sh
export API_KEY="your-api-key"
```

To store a key across sessions, add the `export API_KEY="your-api-key"` statement to `~/.bash_profile` or `~/.profile`.

::: {.callout-note title="Common key variables for local setup"}
```sh
export OPENAI_KEY="XXX"  
export GITHUB_TOKEN="XXX"
```
:::

Access the key in Python:

```python
import os

api_key = os.environ.get('API_KEY')
```

::: {.callout-note}
Advantage: confidential keys are not saved in the script and not shared with others.
:::