Add behaviors and rules for settings use

Author: dsubak

main/env_validator.py

@@ -13,6 +13,32 @@ def strip_comment(val):
     return val.split("#", 1)[0].strip()
 
 
+"""
+This attempts to enforce the following rules around env files:
+- Base env files (i.e. backend.env) will contain default settings
+that are safe for all development environments
+- Local env files (i.e. backend.local.env) may contain overrides and
+settings which cannot have a sensible default (i.e. developer-specific API keys).
+It should contain everything in the example file as well
+as anything intentionally overridden
+- Example env files list only settings which cannot have a sensible default.
+It should contain the minimum required set of settings values
+necessary to get the application running.
+
+
+Behavior we want to validate:
+1) If a setting is in the example file or local file, but
+not the base file it might be missing a default and we emit a warning.
+1a) If a setting is in the example file or local file but not the
+base because there's no sensible default (i.e. values are specific to a user or local)
+we allow a "# local-required" comment on example file to suppress the warning
+2) If a setting is in the local file and the base file, but the values
+differ we emit a warning. This is to keep users from accidentally overriding defaults
+3) If a setting is in the example file but not the local file, we emit a
+warning. This indicates that we are likely missing a required local-specific setting
+"""
+
+
 class EnvValidator:
     """Validates environment variable configurations and reports discrepancies."""
 

main/settings.py

@@ -55,17 +55,6 @@
     profiles_sample_rate=SENTRY_PROFILES_SAMPLE_RATE,
 )
 
-# Validate environment configuration on startup
-# Skip validation during testing or when explicitly disabled
-if not get_bool("SKIP_ENV_VALIDATION", default=False):
-    try:
-        from main.env_validator import validate_environment_on_startup
-
-        validate_environment_on_startup()
-    except Exception as e:  # noqa: BLE001
-        # We don't want to block if validation fails.
-        log.warning("Environment validation failed: %s", e)
-
 BASE_DIR = os.path.dirname(  # noqa: PTH120
     os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))  # noqa: PTH100, PTH120
 )
@@ -865,3 +854,14 @@ def get_all_config_keys():
 OPENTELEMETRY_TRACES_BATCH_SIZE = get_int("OPENTELEMETRY_TRACES_BATCH_SIZE", 512)
 OPENTELEMETRY_EXPORT_TIMEOUT_MS = get_int("OPENTELEMETRY_EXPORT_TIMEOUT_MS", 5000)
 CANVAS_TUTORBOT_FOLDER = get_string("CANVAS_TUTORBOT_FOLDER", "web_resources/ai/tutor/")
+
+# Validate environment configuration on startup
+# Skip validation during testing or when explicitly disabled
+if not get_bool("SKIP_ENV_VALIDATION", default=False):
+    try:
+        from main.env_validator import validate_environment_on_startup
+
+        validate_environment_on_startup()
+    except Exception as e:  # noqa: BLE001
+        # We don't want to block if validation fails.
+        log.warning("Environment validation failed: %s", e)