What problem does it solve? Hardcoded configuration values and scattered os.getenv() calls make Python applications fragile, insecure, and impossible to run across environments. This Skill provides patterns for externalizing configuration into environment variables with typed, validated settings objects. ## Core Features & Use Cases - Typed Settings with Pydantic: Define a central BaseSettings class that loads, parses, and validates all environment variables at startup. - Fail-Fast Validation: Crash immediately with clear error messages when required configuration is missing, instead of failing mid-request. - Advanced Patterns: Nested configuration groups, environment-specific behavior, secrets from mounted files, type coercion, and custom validators. - Use Case: You are deploying a FastAPI service to staging and production. Use this Skill to define a Settings class that reads DATABASE__HOST, API_SECRET_KEY, and ENVIRONMENT variables, validates them at boot, and switches logging behavior per environment. ## Quick Start Set up a pydantic-settings configuration class for my Python app that loads database credentials and API keys from environment variables with startup validation.
