The End of Config Hell in Python, Thanks to Pydantic v2

Almost every Python project ends up with configs, and almost every time they break in stupid ways — typos, drifting test data, half-valid options, type checkers yelling. I’ve run into this in my own projects and in code from mentees. The fix I keep coming back to is Pydantic v2: strict models with extra="forbid", clear defaults, and discriminated unions for things like different encryption methods. That way configs fail fast when broken, stay in sync with the type system, and don’t silently rot in tests and prod. It saves a ton of nerves and human-hours.