Pytest doesn't found my settings directory

I tried to start pytest but the settings file cannot be found by pytest

I'm in virtualenv with Python 3.11.9 and pytest 8.3.2

ImportError: No module named 'drf.settings'
pytest-django could not find a Django project (no manage.py file could be found). You must explicitly add your Django project to the Python path to have it picked up.

here the structure of my project

├── README.md
├── drf
│   ├── drf
│   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   ├── production_settings.py
│   │   ├── settings.py
│   │   ├── urls.py
│   │   └── wsgi.py
│   ├── manage.py
│   └── tests
│       ├── __pycache__
│       │   └── test_auth.cpython-311-pytest-8.3.2.pyc
│       ├── factory_boy
│       │   ├── __pycache__
│       │   │   └── factory_models.cpython-311.pyc
│       │   └── factory_models.py
│       └── test_auth.py
├── drf-uwsgi.ini
├── pytest.ini
├── requirements.in
├── requirements.txt

and here the content of pytest.ini

[pytest]
DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE = drf.settings
python_files = test_*.py
django_debug_mode = true
pythonpath = .venv/bin/python

What I have tried so far:

I tried to add init.py to tests directory (seems not be recommended and didn't worked)
deactivate and reactivate the virtualenv
change drf.settings.py for drf.drf.settings but nothing
run pytest as module with python -m pytest tests

edit: at this moment I can run pytest with any problem, but I use a conftest for that and search a solution with pytest.ini

If you have any suggestions ;)

Solution

You need to add pythonpath within the pytest.ini as follows:

[pytest]
pythonpath = drf
DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE = drf.settings
python_files = test_*.py

Or you can change the layout of the tests and move the pytest.ini from the project's root to the tests folder like this SO post.

Note: use drf.settings instead of drf.settings.py