bubbleconf 0.3.1

A python package for reading configurations from different sources

bubbleconf

A tiny, battery-included configuration helper for Python projects. Use a dataclass to declare your configuration, then populate it from command-line arguments, environment variables, and sensible defaults with predictable priority.

Installation

pip install bubbleconf

Or, for development from this repository:

# from the repo root
python -m pip install --upgrade pip
python -m pip install --upgrade uv
uv sync

Short example

@dataclass
class MyConfig:
  version: str
  is_cool: bool = False
  number_of_things: int = 0
  ratio: float = 1.0

cfg = parse_config(MyConfig)
print(cfg)

You can set values by environment variables (VERSION, IS_COOL, ...), by CLI flags, or by defaults in the dataclass. The parser chooses values in a predictable priority order:

$ VERSION="0.1.2" uv run test.py --is_cool=true                           
MyConfig(version='0.1.2', is_cool=True, number_of_things=0, ratio=1.0)

CLI example

Advanced usage

• Boolean flags accept 0/1, true/false, and common truthy/falsy strings.
• Unknown or invalid values raise a ConfigError with an easy-to-read message (TTY-aware when printed in terminals).

.env file support

bubbleconf can read configuration from a .env file in the working directory. The path can be overridden with the DOTENV_FILE environment variable.

The dotenv source is included in the default priority order (cli, env, dotenv, json, default), so process environment variables still take precedence over file values. Supported syntax:

# comments and blank lines are ignored
NAME=Alice
export PORT=8080
GREETING="hello world"
TOKEN='shh # not a comment inside quotes'
DEBUG=true  # trailing comments after unquoted values are stripped

To use only .env (and dataclass defaults), pass an explicit priority:

cfg = parse_config(MyConfig, priority=("dotenv", "default"))

Pretty-printing the resolved configuration

Pass pretty_log=True to log the fully resolved configuration as a boxed table at INFO level on the bubbleconf logger:

import logging
logging.basicConfig(level=logging.INFO)

cfg = parse_config(MyConfig, pretty_log=True)

Output (colorized when stderr is a TTY; honours NO_COLOR and BUBBLECONF_FORCE_COLOR):

Resolved configuration: MyConfig
┌────────┬───────────┬────────┐
│ Field  │ Value     │ Source │
├────────┼───────────┼────────┤
│ name   │ "Alice"   │ env    │
│ port   │ 9000      │ cli    │
│ debug  │ false     │ default│
└────────┴───────────┴────────┘

Marking fields as secret

Use typing.Annotated with the Secret marker on any field that should never appear in logs. Its value is replaced with "***" in both pretty_log=True and report=True output, while the real value is still set on the dataclass instance:

from dataclasses import dataclass
from typing import Annotated
from bubbleconf import Secret, parse_config

@dataclass
class ServiceConfig:
    name: str
    api_key: Annotated[str, Secret]
    db_password: Annotated[str, Secret] = "dev"

cfg = parse_config(ServiceConfig, pretty_log=True)
# cfg.api_key contains the real value; the log shows "***"

Contributing

PRs are welcome. The project uses uv to manage the local environment. Run tests with:

uv run pytest -q

If you change packaging metadata, the CI workflow .github/workflows/publish.yml will build and either publish a dev build to TestPyPI or (for tagged commits) publish to PyPI.

License

This project is MIT-licensed. See the LICENSE file for details.