Environment Configuration

• Add your M-Pesa credentials to your environment (for example, a .env file). This file is a recommendation to avoid hardcoding keys in your code
• Do not commit secrets to version control. Use a secrets manager or CI/CD environment variables for production.

As we continue through the documentation, examples will read credentials using os.getenv(...) to show which environment variables are expected. For example:

import os

MPESA_CONSUMER_KEY = os.getenv("MPESA_CONSUMER_KEY")
MPESA_CONSUMER_SECRET = os.getenv("MPESA_CONSUMER_SECRET")
MPESA_ENVIRONMENT = os.getenv("MPESA_ENVIRONMENT", "sandbox")
MPESA_BUSINESS_SHORTCODE = os.getenv("MPESA_BUSINESS_SHORTCODE")
MPESA_PASSKEY = os.getenv("MPESA_PASSKEY")
MPESA_SECURITY_CREDENTIAL = os.getenv("MPESA_SECURITY_CREDENTIAL")

This is a recommendation only. The goal is to prevent embedding direct keys in code and keep secrets out of source control.

Sandbox example

MPESA_CONSUMER_KEY=your_sandbox_consumer_key
MPESA_CONSUMER_SECRET=your_sandbox_consumer_secret
MPESA_ENVIRONMENT=sandbox
MPESA_BUSINESS_SHORTCODE=174379  # Default sandbox shortcode
MPESA_PASSKEY="bfb279f9aa9bdbcf158e97dd71a467cd2e0c893059b10f78e6b72ada1ed2c91"  # Sandbox default
MPESA_SECURITY_CREDENTIAL=<will_get_from_the_api_app_created>

Production example

MPESA_CONSUMER_KEY=your_production_consumer_key
MPESA_CONSUMER_SECRET=your_production_consumer_secret
MPESA_ENVIRONMENT=production
MPESA_BUSINESS_SHORTCODE=your_production_shortcode
MPESA_PASSKEY="your_production_passkey"
MPESA_SECURITY_CREDENTIAL=<production_security_credential_from_api_app>

Notes

• MPESA_SECURITY_CREDENTIAL is generated from the API app see how to create/get it.
• Keep secrets out of source control; use a secrets manager or environment variables in deployment.
• For more details on where to get these values, see /getting-credentials