> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.secrefs.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Quickstart (Python)

> The same reference workflow, for Python applications.

## Install

```bash theme={null}
pip install secrefs
```

Bitwarden support is an optional extra, because `bitwarden-sdk` ships only
prebuilt wheels for a fixed set of platforms and a hard dependency would break
installing SecRefs at all on the others:

```bash theme={null}
pip install "secrefs[bitwarden]"
```

## Use it

<Steps>
  <Step title="Write a reference">
    ```bash .env theme={null}
    DB_PASSWORD=sec://aws/prod/db#password
    ```
  </Step>

  <Step title="Run through the CLI">
    ```bash theme={null}
    secrefs-py run -- python app.py
    ```

    Your app reads `os.environ["DB_PASSWORD"]` unchanged.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Or call it directly">
    ```python theme={null}
    from secrefs import sec_refs

    # Expand everything in os.environ, once, at boot.
    await sec_refs.init()

    # Or resolve at the point of use - this one picks up rotations.
    key = await sec_refs.expand_string("sec://aws/prod/stripe#key")
    ```
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Parity with Node

The Python package implements the same reference syntax, the same providers,
and the same two-entry-point model. Everything in
[Load time vs use time](/guides/load-time-vs-use-time) and
[Reference syntax](/getting-started/references) applies unchanged — only the
method names differ (`expand_string` rather than `expandString`).