
Adopt now+21 this week★ 20,525 · 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.