diff --git a/backend/src/mapping_generation/manager_llm.py b/backend/src/mapping_generation/manager_llm.py
index 2a4a7f8..1936c1e 100644
--- a/backend/src/mapping_generation/manager_llm.py
+++ b/backend/src/mapping_generation/manager_llm.py
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ def _load_llm(model="llama3", hugging_face=False):
         # org_id = os.getenv("OPENAI_ORG_ID")
         my_org_id = os.getenv("CT_MAPPER_OPENAI_ORG_ID", "")
         groq_api = os.getenv("GROQ_API_KEY", "")
-        togather_api = os.getenv("TOGATHER_API_KEY", "")
+        togather_api = os.getenv("TOGATHER_API_KEY", "placeholder")
         hf_key = os.getenv("HF_API_KEY", "")
         # mixtral_api = os.getenv("MIXTRAL_API_KEY")
         if hugging_face and "gpt" not in model: