# Generate collection ignores the value of ApiKey

**URL:** <https://community.postman.com/t/generate-collection-ignores-the-value-of-apikey/39596>\
**Category:** Help Hub\
**Tags:** documentation, variables, collections\
**Created:** [September 29, 2022, 9:38am UTC](https://community.postman.com/t/generate-collection-ignores-the-value-of-apikey/39596 "2022-09-29T09:38:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![imirza10](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8dc957/32.png) [@imirza10](https://community.postman.com/u/imirza10)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2022, 9:38am UTC](https://community.postman.com/t/generate-collection-ignores-the-value-of-apikey/39596/1 "2022-09-29T09:38:33Z")

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_My question_:  
Hi, I am writing my first OpenAPI 3.1 document using POSTMAN. Everything seems to work fine except, when I generate a collection from the schema that has the ApiKey (Screen Shot 1), the key goes missing in the generated collection (Screen Shot 2) and I have to type it manually.

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/getpostman/original/3X/f/f/ff5fa39a3fcb62704a7273891398ac5d2cae4297.png)  
Screen shot 1  
 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/getpostman/original/3X/0/f/0f21d2c394301cdea334c9112f73aec087b4e2a1.png)  
Screen shot 2:

Need help on that.  
Thanks

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![w4dd325](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/getpostman/user_avatar/community.postman.com/w4dd325/32/12436_2.png) [@w4dd325](https://community.postman.com/u/w4dd325)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2022, 11:48am UTC](https://community.postman.com/t/generate-collection-ignores-the-value-of-apikey/39596/2 "2022-10-04T11:48:34Z")

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Hi @imirza10

I’m not 100% sure but reading the info on that screenshot I would guess that this is a security feature to avoid sharing API keys in plain text. The recommendation in that screenshot says to use a variable, so is likely a placeholder for where the client is expecting sensitive data to be passed in.