Handle missing API keys in app.py: add try/except around OpenAI, search, planner, and generator calls to display helpful error messages.

app.py

@@ -28,13 +28,21 @@ def chat(user_message, chat_history, chat_pairs, sources, plan):
     # build messages including system prompt
     messages = [{"role": "system", "content": SYSTEM_PROMPT}] + chat_history
     # call OpenAI's ChatCompletion to get assistant's reply
-    response = openai.ChatCompletion.create(
-        model=os.getenv("OPENAI_MODEL", "gpt-5-mini"),
-        messages=messages,
-        temperature=float(os.getenv("TEMPERATURE", "0.7")),
-        max_tokens=int(os.getenv("MAX_OUTPUT_TOKENS", "1024")),
-    )
-    assistant_reply = response["choices"][0]["message"]["content"]
+    try:
+        response = openai.ChatCompletion.create(
+            model=os.getenv("OPENAI_MODEL", "gpt-5-mini"),
+            messages=messages,
+            temperature=float(os.getenv("TEMPERATURE", "0.7")),
+            max_tokens=int(os.getenv("MAX_OUTPUT_TOKENS", "1024")),
+        )
+        assistant_reply = response["choices"][0]["message"]["content"]
+    except Exception as e:
+        # When the API call fails (e.g. missing API key), return an error message
+        assistant_reply = (
+            "An error occurred while processing your message. "
+            "Please ensure your OpenAI API key is configured in the Space secrets.\n"
+            f"(Error: {e})"
+        )
     # append assistant reply to conversation history
     chat_history.append({"role": "assistant", "content": assistant_reply})
     # append pair to display history for Chatbot component
@@ -44,7 +52,16 @@ def chat(user_message, chat_history, chat_pairs, sources, plan):
 def run_search(query, chat_history, chat_pairs, sources, plan, num_results=5, domain_filter=""):
     """Execute a web search and update sources list."""
     # perform search using provided searcher
-    results = run_web_search(query, num_results=num_results, domain_filter=domain_filter)
+    try:
+        results = run_web_search(query, num_results=num_results, domain_filter=domain_filter)
+    except Exception as e:
+        # handle search errors (e.g. missing API key)
+        results = []
+        summary = (
+            "An error occurred during web search. Please ensure your search API key is configured.\n"
+            f"(Error: {e})"
+        )
+        return summary, chat_history, chat_pairs, sources or [], plan
     if sources is None:
         sources = []
     sources.extend(results)
@@ -64,7 +81,13 @@ def finalize_outline(chat_history, chat_pairs, sources, plan):
     if sources is None:
         sources = []
     # use the planner to create the plan
-    plan_text = plan_course(chat_history, sources)
+    try:
+        plan_text = plan_course(chat_history, sources)
+    except Exception as e:
+        plan_text = (
+            "An error occurred while generating the course outline. Please ensure your API keys are configured.\n"
+            f"(Error: {e})"
+        )
     plan = plan_text
     return plan_text, chat_history, chat_pairs, sources, plan
 
@@ -75,8 +98,20 @@ def generate_package(plan, sources):
         plan = "Course plan is empty."
     if sources is None:
         sources = []
-    zip_path = generate_course_zip(plan, sources)
-    return zip_path
+    try:
+        zip_path = generate_course_zip(plan, sources)
+        return zip_path
+    except Exception as e:
+        # On error, return a message as a text file inside an in-memory file path to avoid raising exceptions in Gradio
+        err_msg = (
+            "An error occurred while generating the course package. Please check your API keys or input.\n"
+            f"(Error: {e})"
+        )
+        # Create a text file to return with the error message
+        tmp_path = "/tmp/error.txt"
+        with open(tmp_path, "w") as f:
+            f.write(err_msg)
+        return tmp_path
 
 with gr.Blocks() as demo:
     gr.Markdown(