• dotenvx
  • allows
    • run encrypted envs
      • anywhere
      • MULTI-environment

• Dotenv
  • == 0-dependency module / 💡from a .env file -- loads -- environment variables | process.env 💡
    • == follows Twelve-Factor App methodology

• 🌱 Install
• 🏗️ Usage (.env)
• 🌴 Multiple Environments 🆕
• 🚀 Deploying (encryption) 🆕
• 📚 Examples
• 📖 Docs
• ❓ FAQ
• ⏱️ Changelog

npm install dotenv --save
# or
yarn add dotenv
# or
bun add dotenv

• video
• steps
  • create a .env file
    • | your project's root OR
    • if you use monorepos -> | folder / app.js, | root
  • import & configure dotenv

    # 1. -- via -- CommonJS
    require('dotenv').config()
    
    # 2. -- via -- ES6
    import 'dotenv/config'
    

    • see how to use ES6?

• requirements
  • >= v15.0.0
• ways to specify
  • line breaks DIRECTLY
  • "\n"
• use cases
  • private keys

• #
• if a value contains # & >= v15.0.0 -> "#"

• TODO: The engine which parses the contents of your file containing environment variables is available to use. It accepts a String or Buffer and will return an Object with the parsed keys and values.

const dotenv = require('dotenv')
const buf = Buffer.from('BASIC=basic')
const config = dotenv.parse(buf) // will return an object
console.log(typeof config, config) // object { BASIC : 'basic' }

Note: Consider using dotenvx instead of preloading. I am now doing (and recommending) so.

It serves the same purpose (you do not need to require and load dotenv), adds better debugging, and works with ANY language, framework, or platform. – motdotla

You can use the --require (-r) command line option to preload dotenv. By doing this, you do not need to require and load dotenv in your application code.

$ node -r dotenv/config your_script.js

The configuration options below are supported as command line arguments in the format dotenv_config_<option>=value

$ node -r dotenv/config your_script.js dotenv_config_path=/custom/path/to/.env dotenv_config_debug=true

Additionally, you can use environment variables to set configuration options. Command line arguments will precede these.

$ DOTENV_CONFIG_<OPTION>=value node -r dotenv/config your_script.js

$ DOTENV_CONFIG_ENCODING=latin1 DOTENV_CONFIG_DEBUG=true node -r dotenv/config your_script.js dotenv_config_path=/custom/path/to/.env

You need to add the value of another variable in one of your variables? Use dotenv-expand.

Use dotenvx to use command substitution.

Add the output of a command to one of your variables in your .env file.

# .env
DATABASE_URL="postgres://$(whoami)@localhost/my_database"

// index.js
console.log('DATABASE_URL', process.env.DATABASE_URL)

$ dotenvx run --debug -- node index.js
[[email protected]] injecting env (1) from .env
DATABASE_URL postgres://yourusername@localhost/my_database

You need to keep .env files in sync between machines, environments, or team members? Use dotenvx to encrypt your .env files and safely include them in source control. This still subscribes to the twelve-factor app rules by generating a decryption key separate from code.

Use dotenvx to generate .env.ci, .env.production files, and more.

You need to deploy your secrets in a cloud-agnostic manner? Use dotenvx to generate a private decryption key that is set on your production server.

Use dotenvx

Run any environment locally. Create a .env.ENVIRONMENT file and use --env-file to load it. It's straightforward, yet flexible.

$ echo "HELLO=production" > .env.production
$ echo "console.log('Hello ' + process.env.HELLO)" > index.js

$ dotenvx run --env-file=.env.production -- node index.js
Hello production
> ^^

or with multiple .env files

$ echo "HELLO=local" > .env.local
$ echo "HELLO=World" > .env
$ echo "console.log('Hello ' + process.env.HELLO)" > index.js

$ dotenvx run --env-file=.env.local --env-file=.env -- node index.js
Hello local

more environment examples

Use dotenvx.

Add encryption to your .env files with a single command. Pass the --encrypt flag.

$ dotenvx set HELLO Production --encrypt -f .env.production
$ echo "console.log('Hello ' + process.env.HELLO)" > index.js

$ DOTENV_PRIVATE_KEY_PRODUCTION="<.env.production private key>" dotenvx run -- node index.js
[dotenvx] injecting env (2) from .env.production
Hello Production

learn more

• see
  • here
  • examples | DIFFERENT frameworks, languages, and configurations

• 👀functions / -- exposed by -- dotenv 👀
  • config
  • parse
  • populate
  • decrypt

• what does it make?
  • read your .env file
  • parse the contents,
  • 👀assign the content | process.env 👀
  • return an Object /
    • parsed key
      • == loaded content
    • error key
      • if loaded content failed

• by default, path.resolve(process.cwd(), '.env')
  • == .env | CURRENT working directory
• use cases
  • environment file is located ELSEWHERE
• if you pass MULTIPLE files -> ALL will be taken in account / if key duplicated -> FIRST win
• if you pass MULTIPLE files & options.override=true -> ALL will be taken in account / if key duplicated -> LAST win

• TODO: Default: utf8

Specify the encoding of your file containing environment variables.

require('dotenv').config({ encoding: 'latin1' })

Default: false

Turn on logging to help debug why certain keys or values are not being set as you expect.

require('dotenv').config({ debug: process.env.DEBUG })

Default: false

Override any environment variables that have already been set on your machine with values from your .env file(s). If multiple files have been provided in option.path the override will also be used as each file is combined with the next. Without override being set, the first value wins. With override set the last value wins.

require('dotenv').config({ override: true })

Default: process.env

Specify an object to write your environment variables to. Defaults to process.env environment variables.

const myObject = {}
require('dotenv').config({ processEnv: myObject })

console.log(myObject) // values from .env
console.log(process.env) // this was not changed or written to

The engine which parses the contents of your file containing environment variables is available to use. It accepts a String or Buffer and will return an Object with the parsed keys and values.

const dotenv = require('dotenv')
const buf = Buffer.from('BASIC=basic')
const config = dotenv.parse(buf) // will return an object
console.log(typeof config, config) // object { BASIC : 'basic' }

Default: false

Turn on logging to help debug why certain keys or values are not being set as you expect.

const dotenv = require('dotenv')
const buf = Buffer.from('hello world')
const opt = { debug: true }
const config = dotenv.parse(buf, opt)
// expect a debug message because the buffer is not in KEY=VAL form

The engine which populates the contents of your .env file to process.env is available for use. It accepts a target, a source, and options. This is useful for power users who want to supply their own objects.

For example, customizing the source:

const dotenv = require('dotenv')
const parsed = { HELLO: 'world' }

dotenv.populate(process.env, parsed)

console.log(process.env.HELLO) // world

For example, customizing the source AND target:

const dotenv = require('dotenv')
const parsed = { HELLO: 'universe' }
const target = { HELLO: 'world' } // empty object

dotenv.populate(target, parsed, { override: true, debug: true })

console.log(target) // { HELLO: 'universe' }

Default: false

Turn on logging to help debug why certain keys or values are not being populated as you expect.

Default: false

Override any environment variables that have already been set.

Most likely your .env file is not in the correct place. See this stack overflow.

Turn on debug mode and try again..

require('dotenv').config({ debug: true })

You will receive a helpful error outputted to your console.

No. We strongly recommend against committing your .env file to version control. It should only include environment-specific values such as database passwords or API keys. Your production database should have a different password than your development database.

We recommend creating one .env file per environment. Use .env for local/development, .env.production for production and so on. This still follows the twelve factor principles as each is attributed individually to its own environment. Avoid custom set ups that work in inheritance somehow (.env.production inherits values form .env for example). It is better to duplicate values if necessary across each .env.environment file.

In a twelve-factor app, env vars are granular controls, each fully orthogonal to other env vars. They are never grouped together as “environments”, but instead are independently managed for each deploy. This is a model that scales up smoothly as the app naturally expands into more deploys over its lifetime.

– The Twelve-Factor App

The parsing engine currently supports the following rules:

• BASIC=basic becomes {BASIC: 'basic'}
• empty lines are skipped
• lines beginning with # are treated as comments
• # marks the beginning of a comment (unless when the value is wrapped in quotes)
• empty values become empty strings (EMPTY= becomes {EMPTY: ''})
• inner quotes are maintained (think JSON) (JSON={"foo": "bar"} becomes {JSON:"{\"foo\": \"bar\"}")
• whitespace is removed from both ends of unquoted values (see more on trim) (FOO= some value becomes {FOO: 'some value'})
• single and double quoted values are escaped (SINGLE_QUOTE='quoted' becomes {SINGLE_QUOTE: "quoted"})
• single and double quoted values maintain whitespace from both ends (FOO=" some value " becomes {FOO: ' some value '})
• double quoted values expand new lines (MULTILINE="new\nline" becomes

{MULTILINE: 'new
line'}

• backticks are supported (BACKTICK_KEY=`This has 'single' and "double" quotes inside of it.`)

By default, we will never modify any environment variables that have already been set. In particular, if there is a variable in your .env file which collides with one that already exists in your environment, then that variable will be skipped.

If instead, you want to override process.env use the override option.

require('dotenv').config({ override: true })

Your React code is run in Webpack, where the fs module or even the process global itself are not accessible out-of-the-box. process.env can only be injected through Webpack configuration.

If you are using react-scripts, which is distributed through create-react-app, it has dotenv built in but with a quirk. Preface your environment variables with REACT_APP_. See this stack overflow for more details.

If you are using other frameworks (e.g. Next.js, Gatsby...), you need to consult their documentation for how to inject environment variables into the client.

Yes! dotenv.config() returns an object representing the parsed .env file. This gives you everything you need to continue setting values on process.env. For example:

const dotenv = require('dotenv')
const variableExpansion = require('dotenv-expand')
const myEnv = dotenv.config()
variableExpansion(myEnv)

• Example: here
• | run a module / contains import -> 👀imported modules -- are loaded -- first 👀
  • -> EACH module body -- is -- executed | dependency graph's depth-first traversal
    • Reason: 🧠avoid cycles / skip anything ALREADY executed 🧠
    • see ES6 In Depth: Modules
  • TODO:

What does this mean in plain language? It means you would think the following would work but it won't.

errorReporter.mjs:

class Client {
  constructor (apiKey) {
    console.log('apiKey', apiKey)

    this.apiKey = apiKey
  }
}

export default new Client(process.env.API_KEY)

index.mjs:

// Note: this is INCORRECT and will not work
import * as dotenv from 'dotenv'
dotenv.config()

import errorReporter from './errorReporter.mjs' // process.env.API_KEY will be blank!

process.env.API_KEY will be blank.

Instead, index.mjs should be written as..

import 'dotenv/config'

import errorReporter from './errorReporter.mjs'

Does that make sense? It's a bit unintuitive, but it is how importing of ES6 modules work. Here is a working example of this pitfall.

There are two alternatives to this approach:

1. Preload dotenv: node --require dotenv/config index.js (Note: you do not need to import dotenv with this approach)
2. Create a separate file that will execute config first as outlined in this comment on #133

You are using dotenv on the front-end and have not included a polyfill. Webpack < 5 used to include these for you. Do the following:

npm install node-polyfill-webpack-plugin

Configure your webpack.config.js to something like the following.

require('dotenv').config()

const path = require('path');
const webpack = require('webpack')

const NodePolyfillPlugin = require('node-polyfill-webpack-plugin')

module.exports = {
  mode: 'development',
  entry: './src/index.ts',
  output: {
    filename: 'bundle.js',
    path: path.resolve(__dirname, 'dist'),
  },
  plugins: [
    new NodePolyfillPlugin(),
    new webpack.DefinePlugin({
      'process.env': {
        HELLO: JSON.stringify(process.env.HELLO)
      }
    }),
  ]
};

Alternatively, just use dotenv-webpack which does this and more behind the scenes for you.

Try dotenv-expand

Use dotenvx

Remove it, remove git history and then install the git pre-commit hook to prevent this from ever happening again.

brew install dotenvx/brew/dotenvx
dotenvx precommit --install

Use the docker prebuild hook.

# Dockerfile
...
RUN curl -fsS https://dotenvx.sh/ | sh
...
RUN dotenvx prebuild
CMD ["dotenvx", "run", "--", "node", "index.js"]