diff --git a/docs/subsystems/auth.md b/docs/subsystems/auth.md
index 0f32627b18..a3c09356d1 100644
--- a/docs/subsystems/auth.md
+++ b/docs/subsystems/auth.md
@@ -18,7 +18,13 @@ environment is to set up the real Google and GitHub to process auth
 requests for your development environment.
 
 The steps to do this are a variation of the steps documented in
-`prod_settings_template.py`. Here are the full procedures for dev:
+`prod_settings_template.py`.  The main differences here are driven by
+the fact that `dev_settings.py` is in Git, so it can be inconvenient
+to put secrets there.  In development, we allow providing those values
+in the untracked file `zproject/dev-secrets.conf`, using the standard
+lower-case naming convention for that file.
+
+Here are the full procedures for dev:
 
 ### Google
 
@@ -47,9 +53,9 @@ The steps to do this are a variation of the steps documented in
   Specify `http://zulipdev.com:9991/complete/github/` as the callback URL.
 
 * You should get a page with settings for your new application,
-  showing a client ID and a client secret.  In `dev_settings.py`, set
-  `SOCIAL_AUTH_GITHUB_KEY` to the client ID, and in
-  `dev-secrets.conf`, set `social_auth_github_secret` to the client secret.
+  showing a client ID and a client secret.  In `dev-secrets.conf`, set
+  `social_auth_github_key` to the client ID and `social_auth_github_secret`
+  to the client secret.
 
 ### When SSL is required
 
diff --git a/templates/zerver/config_error.html b/templates/zerver/config_error.html
index 939bcb4079..da0491838d 100644
--- a/templates/zerver/config_error.html
+++ b/templates/zerver/config_error.html
@@ -53,7 +53,11 @@
                     {% endif %}
 
                     {% if github_error %}
-                    {{ render_markdown_path('zerver/github-error.md', {"root_domain_uri": root_domain_uri, "settings_path": settings_path, "secrets_path": secrets_path}) }}
+                        {% if development_environment %}
+                        {{ render_markdown_path('zerver/github-error.md', {"root_domain_uri": root_domain_uri, "settings_path": secrets_path, "secrets_path": secrets_path, "client_id_key_name": "social_auth_github_key"}) }}
+                        {% else %}
+                        {{ render_markdown_path('zerver/github-error.md', {"root_domain_uri": root_domain_uri, "settings_path": settings_path, "secrets_path": secrets_path, "client_id_key_name": "SOCIAL_AUTH_GITHUB_KEY"}) }}
+                        {% endif %}
                     {% endif %}
 
                     {% if google_error or github_error %}
diff --git a/templates/zerver/github-error.md b/templates/zerver/github-error.md
index 18193d1beb..faef74b12e 100644
--- a/templates/zerver/github-error.md
+++ b/templates/zerver/github-error.md
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ You have added `{{ root_domain_uri }}/complete/github/` as the callback URL
 in the OAuth application in GitHub. You can create OAuth apps from
 [GitHub's developer site](https://github.com/settings/developers).
 
-* You have set `SOCIAL_AUTH_GITHUB_KEY` in `{{ settings_path }}` and
+* You have set `{{ client_id_key_name }}` in `{{ settings_path }}` and
 `social_auth_github_secret` in `{{ secrets_path }}` with the values
 from your OAuth application.
 
diff --git a/zerver/tests/test_docs.py b/zerver/tests/test_docs.py
index 0a42de6b42..9102036891 100644
--- a/zerver/tests/test_docs.py
+++ b/zerver/tests/test_docs.py
@@ -342,7 +342,13 @@ class ConfigErrorTest(ZulipTestCase):
         self.assertEqual(result.status_code, 302)
         self.assertEqual(result.url, '/config-error/github')
         result = self.client_get(result.url)
-        self.assert_in_success_response(["SOCIAL_AUTH_GITHUB_KEY"], result)
+        self.assert_in_success_response(["social_auth_github_key"], result)
+        self.assert_in_success_response(["social_auth_github_secret"], result)
+        self.assert_in_success_response(["zproject/dev-secrets.conf"], result)
+        self.assert_not_in_success_response(["SOCIAL_AUTH_GITHUB_KEY"], result)
+        self.assert_not_in_success_response(["zproject/dev_settings.py"], result)
+        self.assert_not_in_success_response(["/etc/zulip/settings.py"], result)
+        self.assert_not_in_success_response(["/etc/zulip/zulip-secrets.conf"], result)
 
     @override_settings(SOCIAL_AUTH_GITHUB_KEY=None)
     @override_settings(DEVELOPMENT=False)
@@ -352,7 +358,13 @@ class ConfigErrorTest(ZulipTestCase):
         self.assertEqual(result.status_code, 302)
         self.assertEqual(result.url, '/config-error/github')
         result = self.client_get(result.url)
+        self.assert_in_success_response(["SOCIAL_AUTH_GITHUB_KEY"], result)
+        self.assert_in_success_response(["/etc/zulip/settings.py"], result)
+        self.assert_in_success_response(["social_auth_github_secret"], result)
         self.assert_in_success_response(["/etc/zulip/zulip-secrets.conf"], result)
+        self.assert_not_in_success_response(["social_auth_github_key"], result)
+        self.assert_not_in_success_response(["zproject/dev_settings.py"], result)
+        self.assert_not_in_success_response(["zproject/dev-secrets.conf"], result)
 
     def test_smtp_error(self) -> None:
         result = self.client_get("/config-error/smtp")