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Overview

Environment variables are used at provider configuration time, not in the structured-output API itself. Your application or preset loader reads the variables, LLMConfig resolves provider settings from them, and StructuredOutputRuntime uses the resulting configuration object. This keeps the package independent from any specific framework bootstrap process.

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LLM Provider API Keys

Instructor supports many LLM providers. Configure the API keys for the ones you plan to use in your .env file: 
# Primary providers
OPENAI_API_KEY=''
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=''
GEMINI_API_KEY=''

# Additional providers
A21_API_KEY=''
ANYSCALE_API_KEY=''
AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY=''
CEREBRAS_API_KEY=''
COHERE_API_KEY=''
FIREWORKS_API_KEY=''
GROQ_API_KEY=''
MISTRAL_API_KEY=''
OLLAMA_API_KEY=''
OPENROUTER_API_KEY=''
SAMBANOVA_API_KEY=''
TOGETHER_API_KEY=''
XAI_API_KEY=''
# @doctest id="10f7"
Only configure the providers you plan to use. Empty keys are ignored.

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Embedding Provider Keys

If you use embedding features (via companion packages), configure these as well: 
AZURE_OPENAI_EMBED_API_KEY=''
JINA_API_KEY=''
# @doctest id="12a9"

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Web Service Keys

Scraping and web-related add-ons use their own API keys: 
JINAREADER_API_KEY=''
SCRAPFLY_API_KEY=''
SCRAPINGBEE_API_KEY=''
# @doctest id="0b7d"
These are not required for core structured-output functionality.

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Configuration Directory Path

The INSTRUCTOR_CONFIG_PATHS variable tells the InstructorPHP ecosystem where to find configuration files: 
INSTRUCTOR_CONFIG_PATHS='config,vendor/cognesy/instructor-php/config'
# @doctest id="a56f"
This is primarily used by the CLI tooling and companion packages. The structured-output package resolves provider presets through LLMConfig::fromPreset(), which has its own path resolution logic (see Configuration Path).

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How It Fits Together

.env file
    |
    v
LLM provider preset (YAML)  <-- reads API key from env
    |
    v
LLMConfig                   <-- typed configuration object
    |
    v
StructuredOutputRuntime      <-- assembled runtime
    |
    v
StructuredOutput             <-- your application code
// @doctest id="0594"
The structured-output package never reads environment variables directly. The separation ensures that the same LLMConfig can be constructed from environment variables, hardcoded values, a framework service container, or any other source.
Security: Keep your .env file secure and never commit it to version control. For production, use your platform’s secrets management system.