## Interactive Login

The simplest way to authenticate:

```shell
dg login
```

This opens your browser to the Deepgram Console where you can authorize the CLI. The CLI stores API keys in your operating system keyring when available. Direct API-key login falls back to profile configuration when the keyring is unavailable.

## API Key Flag

For CI/CD environments or scripted usage, pass your API key directly:

```shell
dg --api-key YOUR_API_KEY listen audio.mp3
```

## Environment Variable

Set your API key as an environment variable:

```shell
export DEEPGRAM_API_KEY=YOUR_API_KEY
dg listen audio.mp3
```

## Named Profiles

Use multiple API keys with named profiles:

```shell
dg login --profile production
dg login --profile development

# Use a specific profile
dg --profile production listen audio.mp3
```

Profiles select separate credentials in the system keyring when available, along with separate configuration values.

## Check Auth Status

```shell
dg whoami
```

The command reports the active profile, a masked API key, its credential source, and the configured project ID.

## CI/CD Usage

For CI/CD pipelines, use the `--api-key` flag or environment variable:

```yaml
# Example GitHub Actions
- name: Transcribe audio
  env:
    DEEPGRAM_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.DEEPGRAM_API_KEY }}
  run: dg -o json listen audio.mp3 > transcript.json
```

## Related pages

- [Deepgram CLI — Getting Started](./self-hosted-deployments-developer-tools-cli-getting-started.md)
- [CLI Installation](./self-hosted-deployments-developer-tools-cli-installation.md)
- [Speech-to-Text Commands](./self-hosted-deployments-developer-tools-cli-speech-to-text.md)
- [Text-to-Speech Commands](./self-hosted-deployments-developer-tools-cli-text-to-speech.md)
- [Text Intelligence Commands](./self-hosted-deployments-developer-tools-cli-text-intelligence.md)
- [Account Management Commands](./self-hosted-deployments-developer-tools-cli-account-management.md)
- [MCP Server](./self-hosted-deployments-developer-tools-cli-mcp-server.md)
- [Shell Completion](./self-hosted-deployments-developer-tools-cli-shell-completion.md)
- [Plugin System](./self-hosted-deployments-developer-tools-cli-plugins.md)

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