diff --git a/templates/github/.ci/ansible/settings.py.j2.copy b/templates/github/.ci/ansible/settings.py.j2.copy
index ab8ebb3d..0b8a1a16 100644
--- a/templates/github/.ci/ansible/settings.py.j2.copy
+++ b/templates/github/.ci/ansible/settings.py.j2.copy
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+SECRET_KEY = "{{ django_secret }}"
 CONTENT_ORIGIN = "{{ pulp_scheme }}://pulp:{{ 443 if pulp_scheme == 'https' else 80 }}"
 ANSIBLE_API_HOSTNAME = "{{ pulp_scheme }}://pulp:{{ 443 if pulp_scheme == 'https' else 80 }}"
 ANSIBLE_CONTENT_HOSTNAME = "{{ pulp_scheme }}://pulp:{{ 443 if pulp_scheme == 'https' else 80 }}/pulp/content"
diff --git a/templates/github/.ci/ansible/start_container.yaml b/templates/github/.ci/ansible/start_container.yaml
index e0891b7a..4ef94c86 100644
--- a/templates/github/.ci/ansible/start_container.yaml
+++ b/templates/github/.ci/ansible/start_container.yaml
@@ -18,6 +18,8 @@
       ansible.builtin.template:
         src: "settings.py.j2"
         dest: "settings/settings.py"
+      vars:
+        django_secret: "lookup('community.general.random_string', length=50, overwrite_all='abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789!@#$%^&*(-_=+)')"
 
     - name: "Setup docker networking"
       community.docker.docker_network:
diff --git a/templates/github/pyproject.toml.tool.j2 b/templates/github/pyproject.toml.tool.j2
index feab7559..a8252ef4 100644
--- a/templates/github/pyproject.toml.tool.j2
+++ b/templates/github/pyproject.toml.tool.j2
@@ -78,6 +78,7 @@ extend-select = [
 [tool.ruff.lint.flake8-tidy-imports.banned-api]
 # This section is managed by the plugin template. Do not edit manually.
 "distutils".msg = "The 'distutils' module has been deprecated since Python 3.9."
+"pulpcore.app.settings".msg = "Always import 'settings' from 'django.conf' instead."
 {%- if plugin_name != "pulpcore" %}
 "pulpcore.app".msg = "The 'pulpcore' apis must only be consumed via 'pulpcore.plugin'."
 {%- endif %}