am using an ENTRA ID Azure ad token based auth to access Azure openAI LLM’s , as my company has deprecated the use of API Keys.
The latest version of Crewai , for that matter all versions post 0.203.xx through me an error when trying to use the Ad token based auth , which used to work perfectly in versions prior to 1.x.x
It throws me this error :-
Error importing native provider: Azure API key is required. Set AZURE_API_KEY environment variable or pass api_key parameter.
Here is my code for reference :-
`
from openai import AsyncAzureOpenAI, AsyncOpenAI
from azure.identity import DefaultAzureCredential, get_bearer_token_provider
from langchain_openai import AzureChatOpenAI
def get_azure_openai_crewai_llm(model: str = “gpt-4.1-mini”):
“”"
Retrieves a CrewAI LLM instance using cached Azure Active Directory authentication.
This function follows the same pattern as get_azure_openai_lanchain_client(),
using the cached token provider from get_token_provider() to avoid multiple
authentication calls across all CrewAI controllers.
Args:
model (str): Azure deployment name (without 'azure/' prefix).
Examples: "gpt-4.1-mini", "gpt-4.1-nano", "o3-mini"
Returns:
LLM: A configured CrewAI LLM instance ready for use in agents and crews
Example:
# In your crew controller:
from functions.azure_ai.azure_openai import get_azure_openai_crewai_llm
self.llm = get_azure_openai_crewai_llm("gpt-4.1-mini")
self.planning_llm = get_azure_openai_crewai_llm("o3-mini")
"""
if not CREWAI_AVAILABLE:
raise ImportError(
"CrewAI is not available. Please install it with: pip install crewai")
llm = LLM(
model=f"azure/{model}",
base_url=AZURE_OPENAI_API_BASE,
azure_ad_token_provider=get_token_provider(),
api_version=AZURE_OPENAI_API_VERSION
)
return llm
def get_azure_ai_token():
“”“Retrieves an Azure Cognitive Services token.
If a token has already been retrieved, it returns the existing token. Otherwise, it retrieves a new token using the DefaultAzureCredential.
Args:
interactive (bool, optional): Whether to allow interactive login. Defaults to False.
Returns:
AccessToken: The Azure Cognitive Services token.
“””
token_provider = get_token_provider()
return token_provider()
def get_token_provider():
“”"
Retrieves a token provider for Azure Cognitive Services.
The function uses a global credential and token_provider to ensure that the credential is only created once.
If a managed identity client ID is provided, it uses that to create the credential.
Otherwise, it uses the default Azure credential, excluding the interactive browser credential if the environment variable SYSTEM_ID is not set to "LOCAL".
Finally, it creates a token provider using the credential and the Azure Cognitive Services scope.
Returns:
The token provider for Azure Cognitive Services.
"""
global credential, token_provider
if not credential:
if MANAGED_IDENTITY_CLIENT_ID:
credential = DefaultAzureCredential(
managed_identity_client_id=MANAGED_IDENTITY_CLIENT_ID)
else:
credential = DefaultAzureCredential(
exclude_interactive_browser_credential=os.environ.get("SYSTEM_ID") != "LOCAL")
token_provider = get_bearer_token_provider(
credential, "https://cognitiveservices.azure.com/.default")
return token_provider
`
Please help me with this ! , i am not getting any documentation for this issue