I replaced the local files with one KeyValue table shared by all the apps. The table has two columns: key (string) and value (json). I can use app_tables.KeyValue.search('app1 configuration') to get the whole app configuration as a json object both on the server side and on an uplink module. Couldn’t be easier.
So far I have used secrets only for SQL queries. it is possible to whitelist my IP address and get access to SQL from uplink modules, but I didn’t ask for it because it feels safer, so I don’t need to use secrets either. For the time being the few times I need to use SQL from an uplink module I do it with a small module dedicated to the SQL queries.
Another problem I had to solve was the import of the dependencies. When that happens I put the import in a try except and when it doesn’t work it means I’m on an uplink and try with the path that works here.