npm dotenv

Dotenv is a zero-dependency module that loads environment variables from a .env file into process.env. Storing configuration in the environment separate from code is based on The Twelve-Factor App methodology.

Install

# with npm 
npm install dotenv
 
# or with Yarn 
yarn add dotenv

Usage

As early as possible in your application, require and configure dotenv.

require('dotenv').config()

Create a .env file in the root directory of your project. Add environment-specific variables on new lines in the form of NAME=VALUE. For example:

DB_HOST=localhost
DB_USER=root
DB_PASS=s1mpl3

process.env now has the keys and values you defined in your .env file.

const db = require('db')
db.connect({
  host: process.env.DB_HOST,
  username: process.env.DB_USER,
  password: process.env.DB_PASS
})

Options

Path

Default: path.resolve(process.cwd(), '.env')

You may specify a custom path if your file containing environment variables is located elsewhere.

require('dotenv').config({ path: '/full/custom/path/to/your/env/vars' })

Encoding

Default: utf8

You may specify the encoding of your file containing environment variables.

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