From f8995c63ef1aa8c0ff6c0342a87ed954f1567a0e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Thomas Wood <thomas@fastdatascience.com>
Date: Fri, 31 May 2024 11:12:38 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] Don't throw error if no GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS set

---
 harmony_api/core/settings.py | 8 +++++---
 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/harmony_api/core/settings.py b/harmony_api/core/settings.py
index a0d0144..db1b1fd 100644
--- a/harmony_api/core/settings.py
+++ b/harmony_api/core/settings.py
@@ -24,15 +24,17 @@
 SOFTWARE.
 """
 
-import os
 import json
+import os
 from typing import Union
 
 from pydantic import BaseSettings
 
-GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS = os.getenv("GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS", {})
+GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS = os.getenv("GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS", '{}')
 if GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS:
-    GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS = json.loads(GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS)
+    if GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS.startswith(
+            "{"):  # only load JSON if it's JSON format
+        GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS = json.loads(GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS)
 
 
 class Settings(BaseSettings):