Best way to secure API key when sharing

[quarinteen]

Hello I have a script that has an api key in it in plain text. This has been okay because only myself and 1 other person uses it. I have been asked to share it though. With that I need to hide the api key and secret. What is the best method of doing this so I can share the script with others? The ways I have found are below. None of these really seem like good ways to me though besides the encrypted file. I can not figure out how to get an encryption key though. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you.

1. Use an encrypted file
2. Use environment variables
3. Code Obfuscation

[rob101]

Why don't you simply replace the key/secret with something like <key> <secret> and explain that the user needs to insert their own there?

[deanhystad]

You could make an executable.