Setup API Key

PREREQUISITE: Run

+check-compatibility

first to ensure the project has server-side capability.

Step 1: Create a Runway Developer Account

1. Go to https://dev.runwayml.com/
2. Create an organization (or use an existing one)
3. Navigate to Organization Settings → API Keys
4. Click Create API Key
5. Copy the key immediately — it is only shown once and cannot be recovered

• Lost keys cannot be retrieved. If lost, disable the old key and create a new one.
• API keys are organization-scoped, not user-scoped.
• You must prepay for credits before the API will work. Minimum purchase is $10 (1,000 credits at $0.01/credit). Do this at https://dev.runwayml.com/ under billing.

Step 2: Install the SDK

Node.js

npm install @runwayml/sdk

Python

pip install runwayml

Step 3: Configure the Environment Variable

RUNWAYML_API_SECRET

Option A:

.env

file (recommended for development)

.env

RUNWAYML_API_SECRET=your_api_key_here

.env

• Next.js, Remix, Vite — built-in

  .env

  support, no extra setup needed
• Express/Fastify/plain Node — install

  dotenv

  :
  bash

  npm install dotenv

  Add to the entry point:
  javascript

  import 'dotenv/config';

python-dotenv

pip install python-dotenv

from dotenv import load_dotenv
load_dotenv()

Option B: System environment variable

export RUNWAYML_API_SECRET=your_api_key_here

Option C: Pass directly to the client (not recommended)

// Node.js
const client = new RunwayML({ apiKey: 'your_api_key_here' });

# Python
client = RunwayML(api_key='your_api_key_here')

Step 4: Update .gitignore

.env

.gitignore

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

.gitignore

Step 5: Verify the Setup

Node.js

import RunwayML from '@runwayml/sdk';

const client = new RunwayML();
// If no error is thrown, the API key is configured correctly
console.log('Runway SDK initialized successfully');

Python

from runwayml import RunwayML

client = RunwayML()
# If no error is thrown, the API key is configured correctly
print('Runway SDK initialized successfully')

Step 6: Confirm Credit Balance

• The API requires prepaid credits to function
• Minimum purchase: $10 (1,000 credits)
• Purchase at: https://dev.runwayml.com/ → Billing
• They can check their balance via the API:

// Node.js - check organization info
const response = await fetch('https://api.dev.runwayml.com/v1/organization', {
  headers: {
    'Authorization': `Bearer ${process.env.RUNWAYML_API_SECRET}`,
    'X-Runway-Version': '2024-11-06'
  }
});
const org = await response.json();
console.log('Credits:', org.creditBalance);

Security Checklist

• API key is stored in an environment variable, not hardcoded

• .env

  file is in

  .gitignore

• API calls will only happen server-side (not in browser-executed code)
• User has purchased credits

Next Steps

• +integrate-video

  — Video generation (text-to-video, image-to-video)

• +integrate-image

  — Image generation

• +integrate-audio

  — Audio generation (TTS, sound effects, voice)

• +integrate-uploads

  — File upload for models that require image/video input