diff --git a/agenta-backend/agenta_backend/routers/variants_router.py b/agenta-backend/agenta_backend/routers/variants_router.py
index ac92cd30aa..74f388fc47 100644
--- a/agenta-backend/agenta_backend/routers/variants_router.py
+++ b/agenta-backend/agenta_backend/routers/variants_router.py
@@ -298,17 +298,7 @@ async def start_variant(
     logger.debug("Starting variant %s", variant_id)
 
     # Inject env vars to docker container
-    if isCloudEE():
-        if not os.environ["OPENAI_API_KEY"]:
-            raise HTTPException(
-                status_code=400,
-                detail="Unable to start app container. Please file an issue by clicking on the button below.",
-            )
-        envvars = {
-            "OPENAI_API_KEY": os.environ["OPENAI_API_KEY"],
-        }
-    else:
-        envvars = {} if env_vars is None else env_vars.env_vars
+    envvars = {} if env_vars is None else env_vars.env_vars
 
     if action.action == VariantActionEnum.START:
         url: URI = await app_manager.start_variant(app_variant_db, envvars)
diff --git a/agenta-cli/agenta/__init__.py b/agenta-cli/agenta/__init__.py
index 8725996535..b5187fe521 100644
--- a/agenta-cli/agenta/__init__.py
+++ b/agenta-cli/agenta/__init__.py
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+from .sdk.utils.preinit import PreInitObject
 from .sdk.agenta_decorator import app, entrypoint
 from .sdk.context import get_contexts, save_context
 from .sdk.types import (
@@ -14,7 +15,6 @@
     BinaryParam,
 )
 from .sdk.tracing.decorators import span
-from .sdk.utils.preinit import PreInitObject
 from .sdk.agenta_init import Config, init, llm_tracing
 from .sdk.utils.helper.openai_cost import calculate_token_usage