The Python client looks for an environment variable `ALGORITHMIA_API_KEY` to override the default API address: https://github.com/algorithmiaio/algorithmia-python/blob/master/Algorithmia/client.py#L19 All other client implementations which check env look for `ALGORITHMIA_API` Suggest adding `ALGORITHMIA_API` but retaining `ALGORITHMIA_API_KEY` as well for backward-compatibility