This quickstart shows you how to get started with the Gemini API using the SDK of your choice.
Prerequisites
This quickstart assumes you're familiar with building applications with Dart.
To complete this quickstart, make sure that your development environment meets the following requirements:
- Dart 3.2.0+
Install the Gemini API SDK
To use the Gemini API in your own application, you need to add
the
google_generative_ai
package to your Dart or Flutter app:
Dart
dart pub add google_generative_ai
Flutter
flutter pub add google_generative_ai
Set up your API key
To use the Gemini API, you'll need an API key. If you don't already have one, create a key in Google AI Studio.
Get an API key from Google AI Studio
Then, configure your key.
It is strongly recommended that you do not check an API key into your
version control system but assign it as a process environment variable instead.
If you're developing a Flutter app, you can use String.fromEnvironment
and
pass --dart-define=API_KEY=$API_KEY
to flutter build
or flutter run
to
compile with the API key since the process environment will be different when
running the app.
Import the library
Import and configure the Google Generative AI library.
import 'package:google_generative_ai/google_generative_ai.dart';
// Access your API key as an environment variable (see "Set up your API key" above)
final apiKey = Platform.environment['API_KEY'];
if (apiKey == null) {
print('No \$API_KEY environment variable');
exit(1);
}
Make your first request
Use the
generateContent
method
to generate text.
final model = GenerativeModel(
model: 'gemini-1.5-flash',
apiKey: apiKey,
);
final prompt = 'Write a story about a magic backpack.';
final response = await model.generateContent([Content.text(prompt)]);
print(response.text);
What's next
Now that you're set up to make requests to the Gemini API, you can use the full range of Gemini API capabilities to build your apps and workflows. To get started with Gemini API capabilities, see the following guides:
For in-depth documentation of Gemini API methods and request parameters, see the guides in the API reference.