[BUG] AI provider API key is not persisted correctly when editing provider

First Check

• This is not a feature request.
• I added a very descriptive title to this issue (title field is above this).
• I used the GitHub search to find a similar issue and didn't find it.
• I searched the Mealie documentation, with the integrated search.
• I already read the docs and didn't find an answer.
• This issue can be replicated on the demo site (https://demo.mealie.io/).

What is the issue you are experiencing?

When editing AI providers in Mealie, a newly entered API key was not persisted correctly in the database.

I use three Groq providers:

• Groq GPT-Oss
• Groq Vision
• Groq Whisper

All AI-assisted imports (image, PDF and URL imports using AI) started failing with:

400: Unable to read any content from the provided source

The Mealie server logs showed that the underlying error was actually:

401 Unauthorized - Invalid API Key

I generated a new Groq API key and entered it through the Mealie AI provider UI, but the problem remained.

I then tested the exact same new API key directly from the Mealie LXC against:

https://api.groq.com/openai/v1/models

and received HTTP 200.

Inspecting the PostgreSQL database showed that the new key entered through the UI had not been persisted correctly.

Before fixing it manually, the stored provider data looked like this:

Groq GPT-Oss: API key length 56, but still contained the previous key Groq Whisper: API key length 56, but still contained the previous key Groq Vision: API key length 1, containing only z

There were no custom provider headers or parameters and no Groq/OpenAI API-key environment variable configured.

After manually writing the valid API key into ai_providers.api_key for all three providers, all three stored keys returned HTTP 200 against Groq.

After restarting Mealie, image imports immediately worked again.

This strongly suggests that updating the API key through the AI provider UI does not always correctly persist the new value.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Configure an OpenAI-compatible AI provider in Mealie using Groq.

2. Use:

   • Base URL: https://api.groq.com/openai/v1
   • A valid Groq API key

3. Save the provider.

4. Edit the existing provider and enter a new valid API key.

5. Save/update the provider.

6. Try an AI-assisted recipe import, for example an image import.

7. The import fails with: 400: Unable to read any content from the provided source

8. Check the Mealie logs. The underlying request to Groq fails with: 401 Unauthorized - Invalid API Key

9. Verify the new API key independently from the same Mealie host: GET https://api.groq.com/openai/v1/models with the new key returns HTTP 200.

10. Inspect ai_providers.api_key in PostgreSQL.

In my case the newly entered key was not correctly persisted. One provider contained only a single character (z), while two other providers still contained the previous API key.

1. Manually update ai_providers.api_key with the valid API key and restart Mealie.

2. The AI import works immediately.

Please provide relevant logs

Mealie logs while attempting an image import:

HTTP Request: POST https://api.groq.com/openai/v1/chat/completions "HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized"

openai.AuthenticationError: Error code: 401 - {
  'error': {
    'message': 'Invalid API Key',
    'type': 'invalid_request_error',
    'code': 'invalid_api_key'
  }
}

Exception: OpenAI Request Failed. AuthenticationError:
Error code: 401 - Invalid API Key

mealie.services.recipe.import_workflow.exceptions.NoRecipeDataError:
Unable to read any content from the provided source

400 Bad Request "POST /api/recipes/create/image HTTP/1.1"

400 Bad Request "POST /api/recipes/create/image HTTP/1.1"

Database state before manual repair:

Groq GPT-Oss | openai/gpt-oss-120b    | key length 56
Groq Vision  | qwen/qwen3.8-27b       | key length 1 | stored value: z
Groq Whisper | whisper-large-v3-turbo | key length 56

Testing the newly generated API key directly from the same Mealie LXC returned:

HTTP: 200

Testing the API keys actually stored by Mealie before the manual repair returned:

Groq GPT-Oss: HTTP 401
Groq Vision:  HTTP 401
Groq Whisper: HTTP 401

After manually updating ai_providers.api_key with the valid API key:

Groq GPT-Oss: HTTP 200
Groq Vision:  HTTP 200
Groq Whisper: HTTP 200

After restarting Mealie, the image import worked successfully.


### Mealie Version

3.25.1

### Deployment

Other (please specify below)

### Additional Deployment Details

LXC / bare-metal via community-scripts, Debian 13, PostgreSQL