How to get Python requests to trust a self signed SSL certificate?

try:

r = requests.post(url, data=data, verify='/path/to/public_key.pem')

With the verify parameter you can provide a custom certificate authority bundle

requests.get(url, verify=path_to_bundle_file)

From the docs:

You can pass verify the path to a CA_BUNDLE file with certificates of trusted CAs. This list of trusted CAs can also be specified through the REQUESTS_CA_BUNDLE environment variable.

The easiest is to export the variable REQUESTS_CA_BUNDLE that points to your private certificate authority, or a specific certificate bundle. On the command line you can do that as follows:

export REQUESTS_CA_BUNDLE=/path/to/your/certificate.pem
python script.py

If you have your certificate authority and you don't want to type the export each time you can add the REQUESTS_CA_BUNDLE to your ~/.bash_profile as follows:

echo "export REQUESTS_CA_BUNDLE=/path/to/your/certificate.pem" >> ~/.bash_profile ; source ~/.bash_profile