I would like to use autoload to use an existings database. I know how to do it without declarative syntax (model/_init_.py):

def init_model(engine):
    """Call me before using any of the tables or classes in the model"""
    t_events = Table('events', Base.metadata, schema='events', autoload=True, autoload_with=engine)
    orm.mapper(Event, t_events)

    Session.configure(bind=engine)  

class Event(object):
    pass

This works fine, but I would like to use declarative syntax:

class Event(Base):
    __tablename__ = 'events'
    __table_args__ = {'schema': 'events', 'autoload': True}

Unfortunately, this way I get:

sqlalchemy.exc.UnboundExecutionError: No engine is bound to this Table's MetaData. Pass an engine to the Table via autoload_with=<someengine>, or associate the MetaData with an engine via metadata.bind=<someengine>

The problem here is that I don't know where to get the engine from (to use it in autoload_with) at the stage of importing the model (it's available in init_model()). I tried adding

meta.Base.metadata.bind(engine)

to environment.py but it doesn't work. Anyone has found some elegant solution?