In a collaborative environment, you often have a .env or .env.example file that contains shared defaults. A local override file allows individual developers to use their own local database URLs or debug flags without forcing those changes on the rest of the team. Is storing project configuration in environment variables a bad practice? - Stack Overflow
Always ensure *.local is in your .gitignore to prevent accidental leaks. .env.python.local
: You can point your Python script to a local database (e.g., localhost:5432 ) while the rest of the team uses a shared staging database defined in the main .env . In a collaborative environment, you often have a