diff --git a/env.sample b/env.sample
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--- /dev/null
+++ b/env.sample
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+# Example environment variables for kalshi-starter-code-python
+
+# API credentials for Kalshi
+KALSHI_API_KEY=your_api_key_here
+KALSHI_API_SECRET=your_api_secret_here
+
+# Environment: "demo" or "prod"
+KALSHI_ENV=demo
diff --git a/tests/test_env_flag_sanity.py b/tests/test_env_flag_sanity.py
new file mode 100644
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+++ b/tests/test_env_flag_sanity.py
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+import os
+
+
+def test_kalshi_env_flag_present() -> None:
+    """
+    Sanity test to verify that KALSHI_ENV has a reasonable value
+    when running tests in a configured environment.
+    """
+    value = os.getenv("KALSHI_ENV", "")
+    # The variable may be empty in some local setups, so this test is
+    # intentionally lenient and only checks that we can read it.
+    assert value is not None