ElevenLabs API key for Voices script.

#webdev #ai #programming #productivity

1. Get an ElevenLabs API key

Create an account: https://elevenlabs.io
Log in and open Profile -> API Keys (or go to the developers/API keys page).
Click Create API Key.
Name the key (e.g. "PowerShell Script") and save it when shown.
Copy the key immediately as you won’t see the full value again; only the last 4 characters will be visible later.

2. Use the key in PowerShell

Send it in the xi-api-key header with every ElevenLabs API request.

Avoid hardcoding:

# Option A: Use environment variable (recommended)
$apiKey = $env:ELEVENLABS_API_KEY
# Set once: $env:ELEVENLABS_API_KEY = "your_key_here"

# Option B: Read from secure file (one-time setup: Read-Host -AsSecureString | ConvertFrom-SecureString | Out-File "elevenlabs.key")
$apiKey = (Get-Content "elevenlabs.key" | ConvertTo-SecureString).GetNetworkCredential().Password

# Option C: Prompt at runtime
$apiKey = Read-Host -Prompt "Enter ElevenLabs API Key" -AsSecureString
$apiKey = [Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::PtrToStringAuto([Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::SecureStringToBSTR($apiKey))

Example API call:

$headers = @{
    "xi-api-key" = $apiKey
    "Content-Type" = "application/json"
}
Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "https://api.elevenlabs.io/v1/voices" -Headers $headers