---
title: __init__
sidebarTitle: __init__
---

# `prefect.settings`



Prefect settings are defined using `BaseSettings` from `pydantic_settings`. `BaseSettings` can load setting values
from system environment variables and each additionally specified `env_file`.

The recommended user-facing way to access Prefect settings at this time is to import specific setting objects directly,
like `from prefect.settings import PREFECT_API_URL; print(PREFECT_API_URL.value())`.

Importantly, we replace the `callback` mechanism for updating settings with an "after" model_validator that updates dependent settings.
After https://github.com/pydantic/pydantic/issues/9789 is resolved, we will be able to define context-aware defaults
for settings, at which point we will not need to use the "after" model_validator.

