Hey there! We've found the following might help you get unblocked faster:

• 🧵 Issue regarding environment variables
• 📚 Environment Variables
• 🧵 Environment variables are undefined during runtime Turborepo

If you find the answer from one of these, please let us know by solving the thread!

Why this error happens

You set environment variables in Railway, but your app can't see them because they're not automatically included in the Docker image unless you do it the right way.

Locally, .env works with python-decouple, but Railway doesn't use your .env unless you copy it in — which you shouldn’t.

Option 1: Add variables in Dockerfile (build-time)

Use this if your app needs the variables during the Docker build process.

Dockerfile:

FROM python:3.12-slim
WORKDIR /app

# Declare args
ARG STRIPE_PUBLIC_KEY
ARG STRIPE_SECRET_KEY

# Map args to env vars
ENV STRIPE_PUBLIC_KEY=$STRIPE_PUBLIC_KEY
ENV STRIPE_SECRET_KEY=$STRIPE_SECRET_KEY

# Install dependencies
COPY requirements.txt .
RUN pip install -r requirements.txt

COPY . .

CMD ["gunicorn", "myproject.wsgi"]

Railway automatically injects values for these ARG variables when deploying.

Option 2: Use Railway runtime environment variables (recommended)

1. Remove this line from your Dockerfile if it exists:

COPY .env .

1. In your settings.py, load environment variables like this:

from decouple import config

STRIPE_PUBLIC_KEY = config('STRIPE_PUBLIC_KEY')
STRIPE_SECRET_KEY = config('STRIPE_SECRET_KEY')

1. In Railway:

• Go to your service
• Add these under the Variables section:

STRIPE_PUBLIC_KEY=your_value  
STRIPE_SECRET_KEY=your_value  

1. Click Apply Changes and Redeploy

Summary

• If you need variables during the build: use ARG + ENV in the Dockerfile
• If your app only needs them when running: just use Railway's runtime injection (recommended)

Make sure to click Apply Changes and Redeploy after updating variables in Railway.

Additional Context to my issue:

I have placed the appropriate variables into my Railway Variables and have redeployed. When checking my details, I can see the variables in the details tab.

Additional Context to my issue:

I have placed the appropriate variables into my Railway Variables and have redeployed. When checking my details, I can see the variables in the details tab.

Do you no longer have the issue?

No, I still have the issue.

Here’s how I solved it on Railway—super simple:

1. Use only runtime vars I removed any ARG/ENV or COPY .env . lines from my Dockerfile. Railway injects the variables at run time, so my Dockerfile just becomes:

FROM python:3.12-slim  
WORKDIR /app  
COPY requirements.txt .  
RUN pip install -r requirements.txt  
COPY . .  
CMD ["gunicorn", "myproject.wsgi:application", "--bind", "0.0.0.0:8000"]  

1. Match names exactly In settings.py, I read the vars exactly as I named them in Railway (case‑sensitive):

from decouple import config  
STRIPE_PUBLIC_KEY = config('STRIPE_PUBLIC_KEY')  
STRIPE_SECRET_KEY = config('STRIPE_SECRET_KEY')  

1. Verify at runtime To be sure Railway applied them, I ran:

printenv | grep STRIPE  

and saw my keys printed out. If you don’t, just hit Apply Changes and Redeploy in Railway.

That’s it—no baking secrets into the image, no .env file, just Railway’s runtime vars and exact names.