# Setting up API keys

Setting up Flourish Charts requires setting up a Flourish API key.

R users can store their Flourish API key in one of two places:

- Inside the `flourish()` function which has a parameter called `api_key`. Pass a string to this argument.
- In your `~/.Renviron` file where you can store sensitive bits of information or, alternatively, information you want available every time you run R code. This is safer as the API key cannot be accessed if you decide to share the R file containing Flourish Charts code. If you choose the latter, please store your key in the file as follows:

    FLOURISH_API_KEY="..."

The `flourish()` function will recognize this variable, grabbing the API key without the end-user needing to specify every single time.

If you do not have an `~/.Renviron` file, create one from your terminal by running `touch ~/.Renviron && open ~/.Renviron`.

Restart R after saving the variable for it to take effect.