Project Setup
=============

We have just `installed Pyrogram`_. In this page we'll discuss what you need to do in order to set up a project with
the library. Let's see how it's done.

API Keys
--------

The very first step requires you to obtain a valid Telegram API key (API id/hash pair):

#. Visit https://my.telegram.org/apps and log in with your Telegram Account.
#. Fill out the form to register a new Telegram application.
#. Done! The API key consists of two parts: **api_id** and **api_hash**.

.. important::

     The API key is personal and must be kept secret.

.. note::

    The API key is unique for each user, but defines a token for a Telegram *application* you are going to build. This
    means that you are able to authorize multiple users (and bots too) to access the Telegram database through the
    MTProto API by a single API key.

Configuration
-------------

Having the API key from the `previous step <#api-keys>`_  in handy, we can now begin to configure a Pyrogram project.
There are two ways to do so, and you can choose what fits better for you:

-   First option (recommended): create a new ``config.ini`` file at the root of your working directory, copy-paste the
    following and replace the **api_id** and **api_hash** values with your own. This is the preferred method because
    allows you to keep your credentials out of your code without having to deal with how to load them:

    .. code-block:: ini

        [pyrogram]
        api_id = 12345
        api_hash = 0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef

-   Alternatively, you can pass your API key to Pyrogram by simply using the *api_id* and *api_hash* parameters of the
    Client class. This way you can have full control on how to store and load your credentials (e.g.:, you can load the
    credentials from the environment variables and directly pass the values into Pyrogram):

    .. code-block:: python

        from pyrogram import Client

        app = Client(
            "my_account",
            api_id=12345,
            api_hash="0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef"
        )

.. note::

    To keep code snippets clean and concise, from now on it is assumed you are making use of the ``config.ini`` file,
    thus, the *api_id* and *api_hash* parameters usage won't be shown anymore.

.. _installed Pyrogram: install.html