* ⬆ Bump mkdocs-material from 9.1.21 to 9.4.7. PR [#10545](https://github.com/tiangolo/fastapi/pull/10545) by [@dependabot[bot]](https://github.com/apps/dependabot).
* 👷 Install MkDocs Material Insiders only when secrets are available, for Dependabot. PR [#10544](https://github.com/tiangolo/fastapi/pull/10544) by [@tiangolo](https://github.com/tiangolo).

# Settings and Environment Variables

In many cases your application could need some external settings or configurations, for example secret keys, database credentials, credentials for email services, etc.

Most of these settings are variable (can change), like database URLs. And many could be sensitive, like secrets.

For this reason it's common to provide them in environment variables that are read by the application.

## Environment Variables

!!! tip