elevenlabs-install-auth

name	elevenlabs-install-auth
description	Install and configure ElevenLabs SDK authentication for Node.js or Python. Use when setting up a new ElevenLabs project, configuring API keys, or initializing the elevenlabs npm/pip package. Trigger with "install elevenlabs", "setup elevenlabs", "elevenlabs auth", "configure elevenlabs API key", "elevenlabs credentials".
allowed-tools	Write, Bash(npm:*), Bash(pip:*), Bash(pnpm:*)
version	1.6.0
license	MIT
author	Jeremy Longshore <[e-mail]>
tags	["saas","voice","ai","elevenlabs","tts","audio"]
compatibility	Designed for Claude Code

ElevenLabs Install & Auth

Overview

Set up the ElevenLabs SDK and configure API key authentication. ElevenLabs uses a single API key (xi-api-key header) for all endpoints at api.elevenlabs.io.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+ or Python 3.10+
• ElevenLabs account (free tier works) at https://elevenlabs.io
• API key from Profile > API Keys in the ElevenLabs dashboard

Instructions

Step 1: Install the SDK

Node.js (official package: @elevenlabs/elevenlabs-js):

npm install @elevenlabs/elevenlabs-js
# or
pnpm add @elevenlabs/elevenlabs-js

Python (official package: elevenlabs):

pip install elevenlabs

Step 2: Configure API Key

# Set environment variable (all SDKs auto-detect this)
export ELEVENLABS_API_KEY="sk_your_key_here"

# Or create .env file
echo 'ELEVENLABS_API_KEY=sk_your_key_here' >> .env

Add to .gitignore:

.env
.env.local
.env.*.local

Step 3: Initialize the Client

Both SDKs auto-detect ELEVENLABS_API_KEY. Minimal TypeScript skeleton:

import { ElevenLabsClient } from "@elevenlabs/elevenlabs-js";

const client = new ElevenLabsClient({
  apiKey: process.env.ELEVENLABS_API_KEY,
});

The Python client mirrors this with ElevenLabsClient(api_key=...). For retry, timeout, and the full Python skeleton, see implementation.md.

Step 4: Verify Connection