Stop Putting Everything in .env — Runtime Config for Django

#django #python #webdev #opensource

Hello all! 👋

TL;DR I created a runtime configuration Django app called django-sysconfig.

Here's the problem that led me to build it. We all tend to bloat the settings.py and .env files to store all these secrets and other API URLs for 3rd-party integrations. This approach requires the server restart on each change to .env file, and also this is not a scalable solution.

The Solution

django-sysconfig is a schema-driven database-backed typed runtime configuration app for Django. This app has in-built cache support (using Django Cache Framework) with a simple Admin UI to allow non-IT admins to easily manage the project configurations.

Some features of this app:

Validations (email, url, ip, port, hostname, min-max, regex, etc. Each config value will be validated before saving to DB)
A clean Admin UI to manage configurations.
Schema based config. Your schema updates as your app grows and is distributed across your apps instead of a single place)
on_save callbacks for each config (helpful for DevOps notifications)
CLI management command to manage configs through cli.
Runtime typed. The values are automatically converted to the field defined type.
Secrets. Store secrets securely in DB (encrypted) and are decrypted when used in code.

This app is built to be extended from the core. You don't like the admin UI. Make your own the core config API and simple templates. Need new validators or new config Field types? Create your own very easily.

How does it compare?

Feature	django-sysconfig ⭐	django-constance	django-dynamic-preferences
Schema definition	`sysconfig.py` per app, auto-discovered	`CONSTANCE_CONFIG` dict in `settings.py`	Decorated Python class, registered manually
Storage	Database	Redis, Database, or Memory	Database
Caching	✅ No expiry, invalidated on write.	✅ Redis TTL or DB cache backend	✅ Django cache, invalidated on write
Typed fields	✅ String, Int, Decimal, Bool, Select, Textarea, Secret	Basic — custom types via `CONSTANCE_ADDITIONAL_FIELDS`	✅ Bool, String, Int, Float, Choice, File, ModelChoice…
Built-in validators	✅ 20 — email, URL, IP, range, regex, slug, JSON, port…	❌	Basic form field validation only
Encryption at rest	✅ `SecretFrontendModel` (Fernet AES-128 + HMAC)	❌	❌
on_save callback	✅ Per-field, fires after DB write + cache update	❌	❌
Management CLI	✅ `get`, `set`, `reset`, `export`, `import` (with `--dry-run`, `--force`, `--skip-on-save-callbacks`)	❌	❌
Per-user / instance settings	❌ Global only	❌ Global only	✅ Global + per-user/model
Admin UI	Custom staff-only views at `/admin/config/`	Standard Django admin (flat list)	Standard Django admin (grouped by section)
Accessing values	`config.get("app.section.field")`	`config.SETTING_NAME`	`global_preferences["section__name"]`
REST API	❌	❌	✅ Optional, DRF-based
Min Python / Django	Python 3.11 / Django 4.2	Python 3.x / Django 3.2	Python 3.6 / Django 3.2
Maturity	🆕 Early stage	🏆 Mature, Jazzband-maintained	✅ Stable, active community