Python environment variables

Interacting With Environment Variables in Python for App Configuration and Secrets.

Creating .env file

Create a .env file with your environment variables in the following format:

MY_ENV_VAR = "This is my env var content."

Install python-dotenv to read the .env file:

pip install python-dotenv

Now you can read the .env file as follows:

main.py

import os
from dotenv import load_dotenv
 
load_dotenv()
 
MY_ENV_VAR = os.environ['MY_ENV_VAR']

Add a new secret, go to your GitHub repository > Settings > Secrets > New Repository Secret.

Once added, you can then map them as environment variables in your GitHub actions workflow.

.github/workflows/actions.yaml

- name: Task name
  env:
    MY_ENV_VAR: ${{ secrets.MY_ENV_VAR }}
  run: python your_script.py

main.py

import os
from dotenv import load_dotenv
 
load_dotenv()
MY_ENV_VAR = os.environ['MY_ENV_VAR']

References

Environment Variables in Python

Accessing GitHub secrets in Python