No. In Prefect 2.20,

Variable.get()

can be called from ordinary Python code outside a flow or task:

from prefect.variables import Variable

value = Variable.get("my_variable")  # synchronous code

In async code:

value = await Variable.get("my_variable")

It uses the configured Prefect API/profile; a flow or task context is not required.

This happens because

prefect deploy

imports your flow module while its own async event loop is running. In Prefect 2.20,

Variable.get()

and

Block.load()

are “sync-compatible”; when they detect that async context, they return coroutines—even if your flow itself is synchronous. Also,

Variable.get()

returns the stored value directly, so it should not have

.value

. Recommended: avoid loading Variables or Blocks at module import time. Load them inside the synchronous flow/task:

from prefect import flow
from prefect.variables import Variable
from prefect.blocks.system import Secret

@flow
def my_flow():
    env = Variable.get("env")
    secret = Secret.load("my-secret").get()

If they absolutely must be module-level, force Prefect 2.20's synchronous path:

ENV = Variable.get("env", _sync=True)
BLOCK = MyBlock.load("my-block", _sync=True)

_sync=True

is an internal compatibility argument, so moving the calls into the flow is more robust. This exact module-import behavior is tracked in Prefect issue #15086.