HBNetwork/python-decouple

Health v2 · maintenance only

Adoption not part of the score

3038 stars · 218 forks observed · 2026-08-28

What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-30, confidence not recorded

python-decouple is a Python library that enforces strict separation of configuration settings from code, reading parameters from .env or .ini files with typed casting and sensible defaults. Originally built for Django, it works as a generic settings helper for any Python application.

Use cases

• load environment variables from a .env file in python
• parse DEBUG=False as a boolean instead of a truthy string
• manage Django settings with defaults and type casting
• keep secrets like API keys out of source code
• share one settings module across dev and production instances

When to choose

• you want typed config values (bool, int) instead of raw strings from os.environ
• you use Django or Flask and want simple .env/.ini based settings
• you need per-deploy configuration without redeploying code

When to avoid

• you need schema validation or nested config structures - use pydantic-settings or dynaconf
• you only need plain os.environ access with no casting
• you need hierarchical config across many services

Facets

library · maturity stable

configuration-management developer-tools developer-tools web-development backend python cli env-files ini-files django settings twelve-factor

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