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🔑 API Keys Setup Guide

This guide explains how to set up API keys for the enhanced person search functionality.

🚀 Quick Start (No API Keys Required!)

The person search works great out of the box with free APIs:

  • ✅ DuckDuckGo API - Instant answers, definitions, related topics
  • ✅ Wikipedia API - Encyclopedia information

Just run:

pip install -r requirements.txt
python unified_app.py

📰 Optional: News API (Enhanced Results)

For news articles about people, you can add the News API:

1. Get a Free API Key

  1. Go to NewsAPI.org
  2. Sign up for a free account
  3. Copy your API key from the dashboard

2. Configure the API Key

Option A: Use the setup script (Recommended)

python setup_api_keys.py

Option B: Manual setup

# Create .env file
echo "NEWS_API_KEY=your_api_key_here" > .env

# Or set environment variable
export NEWS_API_KEY="your_api_key_here"

3. News API Limits

  • Free tier: 1,000 requests per day
  • Rate limit: 1 request per second
  • Perfect for: Personal use and testing

🧪 Testing Your Setup

Test all APIs:

python test_search_api.py

Test the Flask API endpoint:

# Start the app
python unified_app.py

# Test in another terminal
curl "http://localhost:5000/api/search?q=John%20Smith"

🔧 Troubleshooting

"No results found"

  • This is normal for some queries
  • The system gracefully handles API failures
  • Manual search links are always provided as fallback

"API key not working"

  • Check your API key is correct
  • Verify you haven't exceeded rate limits
  • News API free tier has daily limits

"Connection errors"

  • Check your internet connection
  • Some APIs may be temporarily unavailable
  • The system will continue working with available APIs

📊 What Each API Provides

API Free Provides Rate Limits
DuckDuckGo ✅ Instant answers, definitions, related topics None
Wikipedia ✅ Encyclopedia articles, summaries None
News API ✅* Recent news articles 1,000/day

*Requires free account

🎯 Best Practices

  1. Start without API keys - The system works great with just free APIs
  2. Add News API later - Only if you want news articles
  3. Monitor usage - News API has daily limits
  4. Use fallback links - Manual search links always available

🆘 Need Help?

  • Check the test script: python test_search_api.py
  • Use the setup script: python setup_api_keys.py
  • Test individual APIs in the Flask app: /api/search?q=test