Settings not loading if you import from an app in settings.py

[PedroPerpetua]

So I'm having this weird behavior where IF I import something from an app in settings.py, DRF fails to load the settings.

Here's a quick and dirty example taken from my case specifically:

# 'core' app / utilities.py ------------------------------------------------
import os

ENV = os.environ

def get_env(var: str, default: Optional[T]) -> str | T:
    try:
        return ENV[var]
    except KeyError:
        if default is None:
            raise
        return default

# settings.py -------------------------------------------------------------
from core.utilities import get_env

SECRET_KEY = get_env("SECRET_KEY")

# ... other settings ...

REST_FRAMEWORK = {
    "EXCEPTION_HANDLER": "drf_standardized_errors.handler.exception_handler",
    "DEFAULT_AUTHENTICATION_CLASSES": ("rest_framework_simplejwt.authentication.JWTAuthentication",),
}

# ... other settings ...

With this setup, DRF settings will not load (checking the app_config.user_settings returns an empty dictionary). Simply moving the function get_env to the settings.py file (or moving the utilities.py file to, for example the same folder as the settings and importing from there) fixes the issue, and the settings are imported as expected.

I will note that this appears to only happen with DRF settings and not ALL Django settings. Checking Django's settings object, the REST_FRAMEWORK property is there and correct.

This appears to be something very similar to what has been reported here: #5786

Unfortunately I could not find any other references to this issue, or solutions for that matter. I'm hoping that maybe this is just some dumb thing that I don't know how to google for. Tomorrow I can try and post a minimal reproducible example - but wanted to see if someone else had ran into a similar issue before.

[PedroPerpetua]

After digging deep, I found the issue. Turns out it was some sort of "circular import", as in that loading the imported function loaded some DRF stuff "hidden" away in an __init__.py file without reaching DRF settings yet.

To clarify: this was an issue in my end where I was importing things from the DRF module BEFORE the REST_FRAMEWORK setting being declared/exectuted.