Skills setup-api-key

Guide users through obtaining and configuring a Vapi API key. Use when the user needs to set up Vapi, when API calls fail due to missing keys, or when the user mentions needing access to Vapi's voice AI platform.

install

source · Clone the upstream repo

git clone https://github.com/VapiAI/skills

Claude Code · Install into ~/.claude/skills/

T=$(mktemp -d) && git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/VapiAI/skills "$T" && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r "$T/setup-api-key" ~/.claude/skills/vapiai-skills-setup-api-key && rm -rf "$T"

manifest: setup-api-key/SKILL.md

source content

Vapi API Key Setup

Guide the user through obtaining and configuring a Vapi API key for the voice AI platform.

Workflow

Step 1: Request the API key

Tell the user:

To set up Vapi, open the API keys page in the Vapi Dashboard: https://dashboard.vapi.ai/org/api-keys

(Need an account? Create one at https://dashboard.vapi.ai/signup first)

If you don't have an API key yet:

Click "Create Key"

Name your key (e.g., "development")

Copy the key immediately — it is only shown once

Paste your API key here when ready.

Then wait for the user's next message which should contain the API key.

Step 2: Validate and configure

Once the user provides the API key:

Validate the key by making a request:

curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" https://api.vapi.ai/assistant \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <the-api-key>"

If validation fails (non-200 response):
- Tell the user the API key appears to be invalid
- Ask them to double-check and try again
- Remind them of the URL: https://dashboard.vapi.ai/org/api-keys
If validation succeeds (200 response), save the API key:

Check if a
```
.env
```
file exists. If so, append to it. If not, create one:
```
VAPI_API_KEY=<the-api-key>
```
Confirm success:
Your Vapi API key is configured and stored in
```
.env
```
as
```
VAPI_API_KEY
```
.

You can now use Vapi's API to create assistants, make calls, and build voice AI agents.

Keep this key safe — do not commit it to version control.

Step 3: Verify .gitignore

Check if

.gitignore

exists and contains

.env

. If not, add it:

.env

Environment Variable

All Vapi skills expect the API key in the

VAPI_API_KEY

environment variable. The base URL for all API requests is:

https://api.vapi.ai

Authentication is via Bearer token:

Authorization: Bearer $VAPI_API_KEY

Additional Resources

This skills repository includes a Vapi documentation MCP server (

vapi-docs

) that gives your AI agent access to the full Vapi knowledge base. Use the

searchDocs

tool to look up anything beyond what this skill covers — advanced configuration, troubleshooting, SDK details, and more.

Auto-configured: If you cloned or installed these skills, the MCP server is already configured via

.mcp.json

(Claude Code),

.cursor/mcp.json

(Cursor), or

.vscode/mcp.json

(VS Code Copilot).

Manual setup: If your agent doesn't auto-detect the config, run:

claude mcp add vapi-docs -- npx -y mcp-remote https://docs.vapi.ai/_mcp/server

See the README for full setup instructions across all supported agents.