Environment Variables

Complete reference for all configuration options.

Core Settings

Application

Variable	Required	Default	Description
ENVIRONMENT	No	local	Deployment environment (local, development, staging, production, test, ci)

Database

Variable	Required	Default	Description
DATABASE_URL	Yes	-	PostgreSQL connection string

Example:

DATABASE_URL=postgresql://user:password@localhost:5432/dbname

Redis

Variable	Required	Default	Description
REDIS_URL	Yes	-	Redis connection string

Example:

REDIS_URL=redis://localhost:6379/0

Django Settings

Prefix: DJANGO_

Variable	Required	Default	Description
DJANGO_SECRET_KEY	Yes	-	Django secret key for cryptographic signing
DJANGO_DEBUG	No	false	Enable debug mode

HTTP Settings

Variable	Required	Default	Description
ALLOWED_HOSTS	No	["*"]	Allowed host headers
CSRF_TRUSTED_ORIGINS	No	[]	Trusted origins for CSRF

Example:

ALLOWED_HOSTS=["localhost","127.0.0.1","example.com"]
CSRF_TRUSTED_ORIGINS=["https://example.com"]

JWT Settings

Prefix: JWT_

Variable	Required	Default	Description
JWT_SECRET_KEY	Yes	-	Secret key for signing tokens
JWT_ALGORITHM	No	HS256	JWT signing algorithm
JWT_ACCESS_TOKEN_EXPIRE_MINUTES	No	30	Access token expiration in minutes

Example:

JWT_SECRET_KEY=your-super-secret-jwt-key
JWT_ALGORITHM=HS256
JWT_ACCESS_TOKEN_EXPIRE_MINUTES=60

S3/MinIO Settings

Prefix: AWS_S3_

Variable	Required	Default	Description
AWS_S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID	Yes*	-	S3 access key
AWS_S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY	Yes*	-	S3 secret key
AWS_S3_BUCKET_NAME	Yes*	-	S3 bucket name
AWS_S3_ENDPOINT_URL	Yes*	-	S3 endpoint URL
AWS_S3_REGION_NAME	No	us-east-1	S3 region

*Required if using S3 storage.

Example (MinIO local):

AWS_S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID=minioadmin
AWS_S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=minioadmin
AWS_S3_BUCKET_NAME=static
AWS_S3_ENDPOINT_URL=http://localhost:9000

CORS Settings

Prefix: CORS_

Variable	Required	Default	Description
CORS_ALLOW_ORIGINS	No	["*"]	Allowed origins
CORS_ALLOW_METHODS	No	["*"]	Allowed HTTP methods
CORS_ALLOW_HEADERS	No	["*"]	Allowed headers
CORS_ALLOW_CREDENTIALS	No	true	Allow credentials

Example:

CORS_ALLOW_ORIGINS=["https://app.example.com","https://admin.example.com"]
CORS_ALLOW_METHODS=["GET","POST","PUT","DELETE"]

Logging Settings

Variable	Required	Default	Description
LOGGING_LEVEL	No	INFO	Log level (DEBUG, INFO, WARNING, ERROR)

Logfire/OpenTelemetry Settings

Prefix: LOGFIRE_

Variable	Required	Default	Description
LOGFIRE_ENABLED	No	false	Enable Logfire instrumentation
LOGFIRE_TOKEN	No	-	Logfire authentication token

Thread Pool Settings

Prefix: ANYIO_

Variable	Required	Default	Description
ANYIO_THREAD_LIMITER_TOKENS	No	40	Max concurrent threads for sync handlers

Rate Limiting Settings

Variable	Required	Default	Description
NUMBER_OF_PROXIES	No	0	Number of proxies in front of app (for IP detection)
IP_HEADER	No	x-forwarded-for	Header containing client IP

Example .env File

# Application
ENVIRONMENT=local

# Database
DATABASE_URL=postgresql://postgres:postgres@localhost:5432/postgres

# Redis
REDIS_URL=redis://localhost:6379/0

# Django
DJANGO_SECRET_KEY=your-secret-key-change-in-production
DJANGO_DEBUG=true

# JWT
JWT_SECRET_KEY=your-jwt-secret-key
JWT_ACCESS_TOKEN_EXPIRE_MINUTES=30

# S3/MinIO
AWS_S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID=minioadmin
AWS_S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=minioadmin
AWS_S3_BUCKET_NAME=static
AWS_S3_ENDPOINT_URL=http://localhost:9000

# CORS
CORS_ALLOW_ORIGINS=["http://localhost:3000"]

# Logging
LOGGING_LEVEL=DEBUG

# Observability
LOGFIRE_ENABLED=false

Environment-Specific Examples

Development

ENVIRONMENT=development
DJANGO_DEBUG=true
LOGGING_LEVEL=DEBUG
LOGFIRE_ENABLED=false

Staging

ENVIRONMENT=staging
DJANGO_DEBUG=false
LOGGING_LEVEL=INFO
LOGFIRE_ENABLED=true
LOGFIRE_TOKEN=staging-token

Production

ENVIRONMENT=production
DJANGO_DEBUG=false
LOGGING_LEVEL=WARNING
LOGFIRE_ENABLED=true
LOGFIRE_TOKEN=production-token
ALLOWED_HOSTS=["api.example.com"]
CORS_ALLOW_ORIGINS=["https://app.example.com"]

Loading Order

1. .env file is loaded via python-dotenv
2. Environment variables override .env values
3. Pydantic Settings validate and parse values

Type Coercion

Pydantic automatically converts:

Type	Example
str	VALUE=hello → "hello"
int	VALUE=42 → 42
bool	VALUE=true → True
list[str]	VALUE=["a","b"] → ["a", "b"]
SecretStr	VALUE=secret → SecretStr("secret")