Environment Variables

This guide covers secure practices for managing environment variables when using the Stratix Python SDK.

Overview

Environment variables provide a secure way to configure your Stratix SDK without hardcoding sensitive credentials in your source code. This approach separates configuration from code and enables different configurations for different environments.

Required Environment Variables

The Stratix SDK uses these primary environment variables:

Variable	Description	Required	Example
LAYERLENS_STRATIX_API_KEY	Your Stratix API key	Yes	sk-abc123...

Setting Environment Variables

Development Environment

Linux/macOS (Bash/Zsh):

# Set for current session
export LAYERLENS_STRATIX_API_KEY="sk-your-key-here"

# Add to shell profile for persistence (.bashrc, .zshrc, etc.)
echo 'export LAYERLENS_STRATIX_API_KEY="sk-your-key-here"' >> ~/.bashrc

# Reload shell configuration
source ~/.bashrc

Windows Command Prompt:

# Set for current session
set LAYERLENS_STRATIX_API_KEY=sk-your-key-here

# Set permanently (requires admin rights)
setx LAYERLENS_STRATIX_API_KEY "sk-your-key-here"

Windows PowerShell:

# Set for current session
$env:LAYERLENS_STRATIX_API_KEY="sk-your-key-here"

# Set permanently for current user
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("LAYERLENS_STRATIX_API_KEY", "sk-your-key-here", "User")

Verification

Check if variables are set correctly:

import os

def verify_stratix_environment():
    """Verify Stratix environment variables are configured"""
    required_vars = {
        'LAYERLENS_STRATIX_API_KEY': 'API Key',
    }

    print("🔍 Stratix Environment Variable Check")
    print("=" * 40)

    all_set = True
    for var_name, description in required_vars.items():
        value = os.getenv(var_name)

        if value:
            # Don't print the full value for security
            masked_value = f"{value[:8]}..." if len(value) > 8 else "***"
            print(f"✅ {description}: {masked_value}")
        else:
            print(f"❌ {description}: Not set")
            all_set = False


    if all_set:
        print(f"\n🎉 All required variables are set!")
    else:
        print(f"\n⚠️ Some required variables are missing")

    return all_set

# Run verification
verify_stratix_environment()

Using .env Files

Creating .env Files

.env file for development:

# .env
LAYERLENS_STRATIX_API_KEY=sk-development-key-here

# Optional: Set environment name
STRATIX_ENV=development

Loading .env files in Python:

from dotenv import load_dotenv
import os

# Load .env file from current directory
load_dotenv()

# Or load specific .env file
load_dotenv('.env.development')

# Or load from specific path
load_dotenv('/path/to/your/.env')

# Verify variables are loaded
from layerlens import Stratix

try:
    client = Stratix()  # Will use environment variables
    print("✅ Stratix client initialized successfully")
except Exception as e:
    print(f"❌ Failed to initialize client: {e}")