But then we get a `dict` in the parameter `commons` of the *path operation function*.

And we know that editors can't provide a lot of support (like completion) for `dict`s, because they can't know their keys and value types.

We can do better...

## What makes a dependency { #what-makes-a-dependency }

Up to now you have seen dependencies declared as functions.

These examples are intentionally simple, but show how it all works.

In the chapters about security, there are utility functions that are implemented in this same way.

If you understood all this, you already know how those utility tools for security work underneath.

**FastAPI** will know that it can use the class `OAuth2PasswordBearer` (declared in a dependency) to define the security scheme in OpenAPI because it inherits from `fastapi.security.oauth2.OAuth2`, which in turn inherits from `fastapi.security.base.SecurityBase`.

All the security utilities that integrate with OpenAPI (and the automatic API docs) inherit from `SecurityBase`, that's how **FastAPI** can know how to integrate them in OpenAPI.

 *  Add a media type class to OkHttp.
 *  Change custom header prefix:

    ```
    X-Android-Sent-Millis is now OkHttp-Sent-Millis
    X-Android-Received-Millis is now OkHttp-Received-Millis
    X-Android-Response-Source is now OkHttp-Response-Source
    X-Android-Selected-Transport is now OkHttp-Selected-Transport
    ```
 *  Improve cache invalidation for POST-like requests.

# Environment Variables { #environment-variables }

/// tip

If you already know what "environment variables" are and how to use them, feel free to skip this.

///

An environment variable (also known as "**env var**") is a variable that lives **outside** of the Python code, in the **operating system**, and could be read by your Python code (or by other programs as well).

That documentation will show up in the Swagger UI at `/docs` in your API, and it will let external developers know how to build the *external API*.

This example doesn't implement the callback itself (that could be just a line of code), only the documentation part.

/// tip

The actual callback is just an HTTP request.

For that you need to access the request directly.

{* ../../docs_src/using_request_directly/tutorial001.py hl[1,7:8] *}

By declaring a *path operation function* parameter with the type being the `Request` **FastAPI** will know to pass the `Request` in that parameter.

/// tip

Note that in this case, we are declaring a path parameter beside the request parameter.

You can actually skip that extra header and it would still work.

But it's provided here to be compliant with the specifications.

Also, there might be tools that expect and use it (now or in the future) and that might be useful for you or your users, now or in the future.

That's the benefit of standards...

///

## See it in action { #see-it-in-action }

When you mount a sub-application as described above, FastAPI will take care of communicating the mount path for the sub-application using a mechanism from the ASGI specification called a `root_path`.

That way, the sub-application will know to use that path prefix for the docs UI.

And the sub-application could also have its own mounted sub-applications and everything would work correctly, because FastAPI handles all these `root_path`s automatically.

Now let's extend this example and add more details to see how to test different parts.

### Extended **FastAPI** app file { #extended-fastapi-app-file }

Let's continue with the same file structure as before:

```
.
├── app
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── main.py
│   └── test_main.py
```