Troubleshooting Azure OpenAI Integration with NVIDIA’s Nemo Guardrails Update

Recently, I encountered an issue while upgrading to the latest version of NVIDIA’s Nemo Guardrails while working with Azure OpenAI. In my previous setup, using version 0.11.0 of Nemo Guardrails, everything functioned smoothly without any complications. However, after transitioning to version 0.14.0, I began experiencing an error related to model initialization.

Through some troubleshooting efforts, I verified that the model configuration in the designated config folder was correctly set up. Unfortunately, this did not resolve the problem, and I found myself at a standstill. It appears that the documentation surrounding the changes in the recent release does not provide clarity on the model configuration, which has left me guessing as to what might have caused this issue.

The specific error I’m encountering reads as follows:

plaintext
ModelInitializationError: Failed to initialize model 'gpt-40-mini' with provider 'azure' in 'chat' mode: ValueError encountered in initializer_init_text_completion_model(modes=['text', 'chat']) for model: gpt-40-mini and provider: azure: 1 validation error for OpenAIChat Value error, Did not find openai_api_key, please add an environment variable OPENAI_API_KEY which contains it, or pass openai_api_key as a named parameter.

The error indicates that the system is unable to find the OPENAI_API_KEY. This suggests that, with the upgrade, the model now requires the API key to be set up differently—either as an environment variable or passed directly as a named parameter.

If you’re also navigating similar challenges, consider the following steps to resolve the model initialization error:

1. Environment Variable Check: Ensure that the OPENAI_API_KEY is correctly set in your environment. This can be done by checking your system variables or using a terminal to export the key temporarily.

2. Configuration Parameters: Review your model initialization code to verify that you’re passing the openai_api_key as a named parameter if that’s the new requirement.

3. Documentation Review: While it might be tempting to assume that the documentation would contain all the changes, it’s advisable to visit community forums or GitHub discussions that might shed light on undocumented changes in version 0.14.0.

4. Reverting or Seeking Support: If the issue remains unresolved, consider reverting to the stable prior version or reaching out to the