Adopt now+21 this week20,525 · 957 forks

Loads env vars from .env files

Mature enough to put in production this quarter.

Who it's for

Small Node.js teams

What it replaces

Manual env var setup

The catch

Exposes secrets if .env is committed

Your first hour

Install with npm install dotenv

The numbers

Stars20,525
Forks957
Stars added (7d)+21
Open issues4
LanguageJavaScript
LicenceBSD-2-Clause
Last pushLast push 23 days ago
Project age13 years old

Maintainers describe it as: Loads environment variables from .env for nodejs projects.

configuration-filedotenvenvenvironment-variablesjavascriptnodenodejssecret-managementsecret-managersecrets

dotenv, in short

Should a small team use dotenv?
Adopt now. Mature enough to put in production this quarter. Small Node.js teams
What does dotenv actually do?
Loads env vars from .env files
What does dotenv replace?
Manual env var setup
What is the downside of dotenv?
Exposes secrets if .env is committed
Can dotenv be used in a commercial product?
Its licence is BSD-2-Clause, which is permissive and generally fine for commercial use. Confirm against the LICENSE file in the repository.

Weighed against

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Stars, forks, licence and last-push data from the public GitHub API, refreshed August 26, 2026. The verdict is NoizeOff's editorial opinion for a team of 2–20, not advice from the project's maintainers, and not legal advice on licensing. We are not affiliated with motdotla.

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