# Secret Management

If you have API keys or database passwords that you cannot store in your public GitHub repository, you should create a secret and access it in your code using the following approach. For example, if you want to access a private database, or use an LLM like ChatGPT, you'll need to have API keys to manage access.

**1)** First click **Deployments** on the top right of the navigation bar.

<figure><img src="/files/N4AsxRDdINeegmM0IiyS" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

**2)** Click the **production box**

<figure><img src="/files/U84FJheyE2QWKsu98qJR" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

**3)** Click the **secrets dropdown box**

<figure><img src="/files/oehqngN7coOTtHIMbIu5" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

**4)** Click the **secrets dropdown box**

* Here you can create a secret using this form
* Important: Secrets can contain letters, numbers or the "-" and "\_" characters only. They must start with a letter or number. Access your secret using UPPERCASE from your code.

  ```
  import os
  foo = os.environ.get("FOO")
  ```
* Note, when you access a secret using os.environ.get() you access the secret using UPPERCASE variable names. If you do not use uppercase, you will not be able to access your secret.

<figure><img src="/files/YPDiOUPkHpQdbO2pQoqy" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>


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```

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