python-configuration — detailed worked examples

Advanced Patterns

Pattern 5: Type Coercion

Pydantic handles common conversions automatically.

from pydantic_settings import BaseSettings
from pydantic import Field, field_validator

class Settings(BaseSettings):
    # Automatically converts "true", "1", "yes" to True
    debug: bool = False

    # Automatically converts string to int
    max_connections: int = 100

    # Parse comma-separated string to list
    allowed_hosts: list[str] = Field(default_factory=list)

    @field_validator("allowed_hosts", mode="before")
    @classmethod
    def parse_allowed_hosts(cls, v: str | list[str]) -> list[str]:
        if isinstance(v, str):
            return [host.strip() for host in v.split(",") if host.strip()]
        return v

Usage:

ALLOWED_HOSTS=example.com,api.example.com,localhost
MAX_CONNECTIONS=50
DEBUG=true

Pattern 6: Environment-Specific Configuration

Use an environment enum to switch behavior.

from enum import Enum
from pydantic_settings import BaseSettings
from pydantic import Field, computed_field

class Environment(str, Enum):
    LOCAL = "local"
    STAGING = "staging"
    PRODUCTION = "production"

class Settings(BaseSettings):
    environment: Environment = Field(
        default=Environment.LOCAL,
        alias="ENVIRONMENT",
    )

    # Settings that vary by environment
    log_level: str = Field(default="DEBUG", alias="LOG_LEVEL")

    @computed_field
    @property
    def is_production(self) -> bool:
        return self.environment == Environment.PRODUCTION

    @computed_field
    @property
    def is_local(self) -> bool:
        return self.environment == Environment.LOCAL

# Usage
if settings.is_production:
    configure_production_logging()
else:
    configure_debug_logging()

Pattern 7: Nested Configuration Groups

Organize related settings into nested models.

from pydantic import BaseModel
from pydantic_settings import BaseSettings

class DatabaseSettings(BaseModel):
    host: str = "localhost"
    port: int = 5432
    name: str
    user: str
    password: str

class RedisSettings(BaseModel):
    url: str = "redis://localhost:6379"
    max_connections: int = 10

class Settings(BaseSettings):
    database: DatabaseSettings
    redis: RedisSettings
    debug: bool = False

    model_config = {
        "env_nested_delimiter": "__",
        "env_file": ".env",
    }

Environment variables use double underscore for nesting:

DATABASE__HOST=db.example.com
DATABASE__PORT=5432
DATABASE__NAME=myapp
DATABASE__USER=admin
DATABASE__PASSWORD=secret
REDIS__URL=redis://redis.example.com:6379

Pattern 8: Secrets from Files

For container environments, read secrets from mounted files.

from pydantic_settings import BaseSettings
from pydantic import Field
from pathlib import Path

class Settings(BaseSettings):
    # Read from environment variable or file
    db_password: str = Field(alias="DB_PASSWORD")

    model_config = {
        "secrets_dir": "/run/secrets",  # Docker secrets location
    }

Pydantic will look for /run/secrets/db_password if the env var isn't set.

Pattern 9: Configuration Validation

Add custom validation for complex requirements.

from pydantic_settings import BaseSettings
from pydantic import Field, model_validator

class Settings(BaseSettings):
    db_host: str = Field(alias="DB_HOST")
    db_port: int = Field(alias="DB_PORT")
    read_replica_host: str | None = Field(default=None, alias="READ_REPLICA_HOST")
    read_replica_port: int = Field(default=5432, alias="READ_REPLICA_PORT")

    @model_validator(mode="after")
    def validate_replica_settings(self):
        if self.read_replica_host and self.read_replica_port == self.db_port:
            if self.read_replica_host == self.db_host:
                raise ValueError(
                    "Read replica cannot be the same as primary database"
                )
        return self

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