Connect OpenAI and verify your first reply

Before you start

You need an OpenAI API key for the intended API project and permission to manage provider credentials in the SiloBox workspace. Use the official API key instructions to find or create a key. ChatGPT and API billing are separate; a ChatGPT subscription does not fund API use. You will paste the secret itself into the password field, so keep it available privately until the connection is saved. Do not paste it into your prompt instructions.

Use a credential name that helps your team recognize its purpose, such as the business or environment it serves. A saved credential is a reusable connection. It is different from the prompt, which contains the assistant's instructions, and from the automation, which controls the message route.

Connect and select the key

1. Open Guided setup and go to Connect OpenAI. Confirm the workspace before adding a credential, especially if you work with several clients.
2. If an appropriate credential already exists, select it from OpenAI API key. To add a separate connection, choose Add another key when that option is available.
3. Enter a Credential name and paste the secret into OpenAI API key. Choose Save connection and wait for the success message. If saving fails, read the displayed error before retrying.
4. Select the saved key and continue to your prompt. Open or create a prompt, review its model settings, and use Test with a realistic customer question. Where the tester offers a credential selector, choose the intended connection.
5. Check the response for usefulness as well as successful generation. Publish the prompt once its behavior is ready, then confirm the chosen connection when creating your automation.

Manage keys directly in AI Providers

1. Open AI Providers in the current workspace. In OpenAI API Keys, enter Credential name and OpenAI API key, then select Add credential. Select Default for prompt tests and direct API requests if this should be the default connection.
2. For a saved connection, open Edit key. Update the name or paste a replacement secret and select Save. Leave the key field blank to keep the saved secret; the existing secret is not displayed for copying.
3. Use Make default on a saved credential when you want to change the default. Automations have their own selected key: review that selection rather than assuming a new default changes every automation.
4. If you arrived from guided or automation setup, use the return link, then select the intended credential and test it. Saving a replacement on the existing credential updates that connection; adding a different credential gives you a separate option that still needs to be selected.

Before deleting a credential, review automations that may use it and select a working replacement where necessary. The page requires Confirm deletion of this key before Delete key. Deleting a SiloBox credential is not the same as revoking the secret in the OpenAI project. When replacing a revoked secret, confirm generation works again with the intended model and connection.

Check the result

The key should be available for selection after saving. A successful prompt test provides the practical check that the selected credential can generate a reply with those settings. Saving alone does not confirm model access or billing. A prompt test also does not verify Manychat delivery; complete the connected-channel test separately.

If you get stuck

If only an administrator can manage credentials, ask that person to save the connection. For an authentication failure, check that the secret belongs to the intended API project and has not been revoked. For access, billing, or usage-limit errors, review the relevant OpenAI project configuration and the exact test error. If you saved a new key but the test still fails, confirm the tester selected that key. Share the error and selected model with support, never the API secret.

Related guides

• Prepare your prompt
• Drafts and publishing
• Automation not replying