Troubleshooting Azure OpenAI Errors with Nemo Guardrails 0.14.0

Recently, I encountered a challenge while integrating Azure OpenAI with the latest version of NVIDIA’s Nemo Guardrails—specifically, version 0.14.0. In my previous setup using Nemo Guardrails 0.11.0, everything functioned seamlessly. However, after upgrading, I started receiving an error that I couldn’t resolve easily.

Upon investigating, I ensured that the model configuration in the designated configuration folder was accurate and complete. Everything appeared to be in order; however, the error persisted. It seemed that there had been some changes between the two versions of Nemo, but I was unable to discover any pertinent updates in the documentation regarding the model configuration.

The error encountered was as follows:

ModellnitializationError: 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-4o-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.

This issue highlights a vital configuration step that may have been overlooked during the upgrade process. To resolve this error, it seems necessary to ensure that the OPENAI_API_KEY is set correctly as an environment variable or passed explicitly as a parameter.

If you’re experiencing similar issues after upgrading to Nemo Guardrails 0.14.0, it may be beneficial to double-check your environment setups to confirm that all required API keys and configurations are in place. If you have any additional insights or potential solutions regarding this error, feel free to share your experiences in the comments below. Your feedback could be invaluable to others facing the same challenge!