API key not being read correctly
Resolved 💬 2 comments Opened Aug 29, 2025 by ieuanb74 Closed Aug 29, 2025
What version of Codex is running?
codex-cli 0.23.0
Which model were you using?
gpt-4.1
What platform is your computer?
Darwin 24.6.0 x86_64 i386
What steps can reproduce the bug?
When running codex cli with the --profile argument and an Azure OpenAI provider, the agent says there is a missing environment variable with a name that matches the value supplied as env_key in config.toml.
- Define config.toml
```preferred_auth_method = "apikey"
[model_providers.azure]
name = "Azure"
base_url = "https://dummy.openai.azure.com/openai/deployments/dummy-deployment"
env_key = "11112222333344445555"
query_params = { "api-version" = "2025-04-01-preview" }
wire_api = "chat"
[profiles.az]
model_provider = "azure"
model = "dummy-deployment"
2. Export API key as env var
export OPENAI_API_KEY="11112222333344445555"
3. Run codex cli with --profile argument
codex --profile az
4. Select option 2 (Require approval of edit or commands)
5. Write any prompt and hit enter
### What is the expected behavior?
Codex CLI should accept either the `env_key` provided in the config.toml, the `OPENAI_API_KEY` environment variable, or both. It should not require setting a separate environment variable.
### What do you see instead?
Results in
🖐 Missing environment variable: 11112222333344445555.
Workaround is to export the env var with the same name and value e.g.
export 11112222333344445555=11112222333344445555
### Additional information
_No response_
2 Comments
i think
env_keyrepresents the key of the environment variable it would look forso you're expected to set
env_keytoOPENAI_API_KEYin the config.tomland then export
OPENAI_API_KEYlike you are doing alreadyAhh my bad, I've misread the docs. Thanks for clearing that up!