> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.healthuniverse.com/overview/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.healthuniverse.com/overview/building-apps-in-health-universe/deploying-your-app-to-health-universe/secret-management.md).
# 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.
**2)** Click the **production box**
**3)** Click the **secrets dropdown box**
**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.
---
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