How to ACTUALLY set environment variables in PyCharm?

I am attempting to run a series of tests for a python project in PyCharm and have been running into os.environ[] KeyErrors near non-stop the last few days. Device is a MacBook Pro M2.

I can access the env vars from the built in "Terminal" but booting up python and testing with os.environ, but not when I actually go and run the test or debug. That's when the KeyErrors come up.

Here's what I have done so far:

1. gone to Run>Edit Configurations and added my env vars there
2. gone to Settings>Build,Execution,Deployment>Console>Python Console and added them there too
3. gone to tools>Terminal and done the same.

The current workaround is to add an EnvFile config for every individual test! It seems like Run>Edit Configurations does absolutely nothing unless I specify the exact file_name/python_function. Creating a run config for an entire test folder doesn't seem to do anything.

Here is the content of my config.xml file:
```xml
<component name="ProjectRunConfigurationManager">
  <configuration default="false" name="Unittests in tests/unit" type="tests" factoryName="Unittests">
    <module name="smde_refactor" />
    <option name="INTERPRETER_OPTIONS" value="" />
    <option name="PARENT_ENVS" value="true" />
    <option name="SDK_HOME" value="$PROJECT_DIR$/venv/bin/python" />
    <option name="SDK_NAME" value="Python 3.10 (smde_refactor)" />
    <option name="WORKING_DIRECTORY" value="" />
    <option name="IS_MODULE_SDK" value="false" />
    <option name="ADD_CONTENT_ROOTS" value="true" />
    <option name="ADD_SOURCE_ROOTS" value="true" />
    <EXTENSION ID="net.ashald.envfile">
      <option name="IS_ENABLED" value="true" />
      <option name="IS_SUBST" value="false" />
      <option name="IS_PATH_MACRO_SUPPORTED" value="false" />
      <option name="IS_IGNORE_MISSING_FILES" value="false" />
      <option name="IS_ENABLE_EXPERIMENTAL_INTEGRATIONS" value="false" />
      <ENTRIES>
        <ENTRY IS_ENABLED="true" PARSER="runconfig" IS_EXECUTABLE="false" />
        <ENTRY IS_ENABLED="true" PARSER="env" IS_EXECUTABLE="false" PATH="tests/unit/environment.env" />
      </ENTRIES>
    </EXTENSION>
    <option name="_new_pattern" value="&quot;&quot;" />
    <option name="_new_additionalArguments" value="&quot;&quot;" />
    <option name="_new_target" value="&quot;$PROJECT_DIR$/tests/unit&quot;" />
    <option name="_new_targetType" value="&quot;PATH&quot;" />
    <method v="2" />
  </configuration>
</component>
```

^I know this is a folder instead of a script -- but even when a specific script is selected there's still no luck picking up env vars with any of the functions inside that script.

If I run a .py script as a whole (after adding env vars to the run config), it succeeds (os.environ picked up!). But if I run any of the tests within that .py script individually, they all fail (could not pick up os.environ).

Thank you!