environment-config

Manage environment variables and secrets by using .env.example templates with placeholders and a .env.secrets file for real values. This approach ensures consistent configuration across development, staging, and production while preventing configuration drift.

Prevent committing secret keys by integrating .gitignore rules that enforce never-commit policies on .env.secrets files. This secrets governance approach stops credential leakage without disrupting your normal version control workflow.

Load environment variables at application startup using dotenv to auto-populate the process environment from your .env.secrets file. This runtime loading mechanism ensures consistent configuration is available before your application logic executes.

Dotenv works for managing database credentials and API keys by loading them into the environment at startup. It supports production deployments when paired with .gitignore enforcement to keep .env.secrets files out of version control.

Your .env.secrets file may already be tracked by git before .gitignore rules were added. Remove it from the index with git rm --cached, then let the never-commit enforcement from .gitignore prevent future accidental commits of environment secrets.

Structure env files for multi-environment deployment by creating a .env.example with placeholder values for your team and a separate .env.secrets containing real API keys and database credentials tailored to each deployment stage.