I understand you want to add the GOOGLE_API_KEY to the frontend, but I need to clarify something important: exposing API keys directly in frontend code is a security risk as they could be extracted by anyone visiting your site.

The application is already designed with the best security practices in mind:

1. The GOOGLE_API_KEY environment variable you added to Vercel is used securely on the server side
2. Users can optionally add their own API key through the settings UI, which is stored in their browser's localStorage (not exposed in the code)

If you want to pre-populate the API key field in the UI for testing or development purposes, here's a safer approach:

To properly implement this approach, you need to:

1. Create a client-side environment variable: Add a new environment variable to your Vercel project named NEXT_PUBLIC_GEMINI_API_KEY. Any environment variable starting with NEXT_PUBLIC_ will be exposed to the browser.
2. Important security warning: Only do this if you're comfortable with users potentially seeing this API key in their browser. This approach is generally not recommended for production applications.
3. Better alternative: Instead of exposing your API key, keep using the server-side GOOGLE_API_KEY you've already set up. The application will use this key automatically when users don't provide their own.

The code I've provided will:

• Check if the user has saved an API key in localStorage first
• If not, it will use the NEXT_PUBLIC_GEMINI_API_KEY if available
• Save this key to localStorage so it persists between sessions

Remember that the best practice is to keep your API key secure on the server side, which you've already done by adding GOOGLE_API_KEY to your Vercel project.

Please make sure to add the following environment variable to your project:

You're right - exposing API keys in client-side code is a security risk, even with the NEXT_PUBLIC_ prefix. Let's fix this by removing the client-side environment variable reference and using a more secure approach:

I've fixed the security issue by:

1. Removing all direct references to environment variables in client-side code
2. Creating a new server endpoint (/api/check-api-key) that safely checks if the API key is available without exposing it
3. Adding a state variable to track if the server has an API key configured
4. Updating the UI to show appropriate messages based on API key availability

This approach is much more secure because:

• The actual API key is never exposed in client-side code
• The client only knows whether a key exists on the server, not what the key is
• Users can still provide their own API key if they prefer
• The application will work with either the server-side key or a user-provided key

The deployment should now succeed since we're no longer exposing sensitive environment variables in client-side code.