Create mantainable env.sample using django-environ // Enrique Soria

Keeping your env.sample is a hard task, that’s why I created a way to have it updated automatically:

How-to:

Put every env var with its configuration in a ENV_DEFAULTS variable, in a separate python file named environment_defaults.py (exactly this file name)

# environment_defaults.py
ENV_DEFAULTS = dict(
    VARIABLE_WITH_DEFAULT_VALUE=(str, "default value"),
    VARIABLE_WITHOUT_DEFAULT_VALUE=str,
)

Instantiate Env with ENV_DEFAULTS on your Django settings file

# settings.py
from environ import Env
from environment_defaults import ENV_DEFAULTS

env = Env(**ENV_DEFAULTS)

And ensure you are accessing it using env("VAR_NAME") instead of env.str("VAR_NAME")

# settings.py
value = env("VARIABLE_WITH_DEFAULT_VALUE")
value = env("VARIABLE_WITHOUT_DEFAULT_VALUE")

Add this pre-commit hook so your env.sample gets updated on each commit

repos:
  - repo: https://github.com/EnriqueSoria/update-django-environ-sample
    rev: 'vX.X.X'  # Pick a release version
    hooks:
      - id: update-django-environ-sample
        args: [ "-p", "myapp/" ]  # Path where your environment_defaults.py is located

Enjoy your always up-to-date env.sample!