GPCAPIM-190 - Poetry dependency approach to consuming code from common repo

README.md

@@ -32,6 +32,12 @@ git clone git@github.com:NHSDigital/clinical-data-gateway-api.git
 cd clinical-data-gateway-api.git
 ```
 
+### External Dependencies
+
+This project depends on the [clinical-data-common](https://github.com/NHSDigital/clinical-data-common) library, which provides shared code and utilities used across various clinical data API products. The dependency is managed via Poetry and installed directly from the GitHub repository.
+
+The library is referenced in `gateway-api/pyproject.toml` as a git dependency. The CI/CD pipeline is currently configured to pull the latest version from the specified branch automatically.
+
 The project can then be built within a [Dev Container](https://containers.dev/) as defined within the file outlined under `.devcontainer/devcontainer.json`. When opening the project within Visual Studio Code, if the [Dev Containers extension](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-vscode-remote.remote-containers) is installed, you should be prompted to re-open the folder within a Dev Container if you wish. If accepted, this should build the Dev Container locally which will include all required libraries and tools for development.
 
 > [!NOTE]<br>

gateway-api/README.md

@@ -56,3 +56,22 @@ gateway-api/
 ├── pyproject.toml                # Dependencies and config
 └── README.md
 ```
+
+## External Dependencies
+
+This module depends on the [clinical-data-common](https://github.com/NHSDigital/clinical-data-common) library for shared utilities and code. The dependency is specified as a git poetry dependency in `pyproject.toml`:
+
+```toml
+[tool.poetry.dependencies]
+clinical-data-common = { git = "https://github.com/NHSDigital/clinical-data-common.git", branch = "main" }
+```
+
+### Updating the Dependency
+
+To pull the latest version of the common library:
+
+```bash
+poetry update clinical-data-common
+```
+
+The CI/CD pipeline automatically updates this dependency on each run to ensure the latest code from the specified branch is used during active development.

gateway-api/pyproject.toml

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 [project]
 name = "gateway-api"
 version = "0.1.0"
-description = ""
+description = "Clinical Data Gateway API - Provides GP Connect APIs over the internet via the API Management platform"
 authors = [
     {name = "Your Name", email = "you@example.com"}
 ]
@@ -10,6 +10,9 @@ requires-python = ">3.13,<4.0.0"
 dependencies = [
 ]
 
+[tool.poetry.dependencies]
+clinical-data-common = { git = "https://github.com/NHSDigital/clinical-data-common.git", tag = "v0.1.0" }
+
 [tool.poetry]
 packages = [{include = "gateway_api", from = "src"}]
 
@@ -45,6 +48,7 @@ dev = [
     "pytest-cov (>=7.0.0,<8.0.0)",
     "pytest-html (>=4.1.1,<5.0.0)",
     "pact-python>=2.0.0",
+    "python-dotenv>=1.0.0",
     "requests>=2.31.0",
     "schemathesis>=4.4.1",
     "types-requests (>=2.32.4.20250913,<3.0.0.0)",

gateway-api/src/gateway_api/handler.py

@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+from clinical_data_common import get_hello
+
+
 class User:
     def __init__(self, name: str):
         self._name = name
@@ -10,4 +13,5 @@ def name(self) -> str:
 def greet(user: User) -> str:
     if user.name == "nonexistent":
         raise ValueError("nonexistent user provided.")
-    return f"Hello, {user.name}!"
+    hello = get_hello()
+    return f"{hello}{user.name}!"

gateway-api/tests/conftest.py

@@ -7,6 +7,11 @@
 
 import pytest
 import requests
+from dotenv import find_dotenv, load_dotenv
+
+# Load environment variables from .env file in the workspace root
+# find_dotenv searches upward from current directory for .env file
+load_dotenv(find_dotenv())
 
 
 class Client: