There are two methods to using env variables with the `python-dotenv` package.. ## Method 1 This loads them into the "os" environment variables (for that particular instance of python that your code is executing in). - You can reference them as you

import_envs.py

import os
from dotenv import load_dotenv, dotenv_values

# method 1)
load_dotenv()  # load

# ref
os.getenv('VARIABLE_NAME', default='alternate_value')  # specifying a default value to fall back on if env var is missing
os.env['VARIABLE_NAME'] # may return None

# method 2)
env = { **dotenv_values(".env") } # load
env['VARIABLE_NAME']  # ref