Custom-Env

Custom env is a library built to make development more feasible by allowing multiple .env configurations for different environments. This is done by loading environment variables from a .env.envname file, into the node's process.env object.

Installation

npm install custom-env

Usage

Place this at the top of your application

ESM Import

import { env } from "custom-env";
env();

CommonJS Require

require("custom-env").env();

Create a .env file in your app's root directory and add the environment variables each on new line:

APP_ENV=dev
DB_HOST=localhost
DB_USER=root
DB_PASS=root

Simple! The process.env is now loaded with the environment variables above.

Example

console.log(process.env.APP_ENV);
console.log(process.env.DB_HOST);
console.log(process.env.DB_USER);
console.log(process.env.DB_PASS);

Expected Output

dev
localhost
root
root

If you want to load from a particular environment, use:

ESM Import

// This loads configuration from staging environment
import { env } from "custom-env";
env("staging");

CommonJS Require

// This loads configuration from staging environment
require("custom-env").env("staging");

Create a .env.staging file in your app's root directory and add the environment variables each on new line:

APP_ENV=staging
DB_HOST=localhost
DB_USER=root
DB_PASS=root

The process.env is now loaded with the environment variables above. This completely overrides process.env.NODE_ENV Try it out:

NODE_ENV=staging node index.js

Example

console.log(process.env.APP_ENV);
console.log(process.env.DB_HOST);
console.log(process.env.DB_USER);
console.log(process.env.DB_PASS);

Expected Output

staging
localhost
root
root

Loading from the current environment

You can load configuration from the current environment with custom-env by passing the first argument of the env() method as true (note: not required in version 2+) and that's all:

ESM Import

// This Loads the configuration dynamically from to the current enviroment
// Defaults to _dev_ if the environment was set
import { env } from "custom-env";
env("custom-env").env(true);

CommonJS Require

// This Loads the configuration dynamically from to the current enviroment
// Defaults to _dev_ if the environment was set
require("custom-env").env(true);

The env() method

The env() method holds three (3) optional arguments.

• 1 envname - Specifies the development name, defaults to dev or development,
• 2 path - Specifies the directory to find configuration files, defaults to current working directory.
• 3 defaultEnvFallback - Specifies whether to fallback to .env configuration if the specified envname is not found, defaults to true.

ESM Import

import { env } from "custom-env";
env("dev", "path/to/custom/path");

CommonJS Require

require("custom-env").env("dev", "path/to/custom/path");

TypeScript Usage

The library comes with a type declaration file If you want auto complete for your .env variables

Use dotenv-types-generator it will generate a .env.d.ts file containing all your variables

Usage:

npx dotenv-types-generator

dotenv-expand

You can also leverage the dotenv-expand extension to use ENV variable expansion inside your .env files.

For example:

IP=127.0.0.1
PORT=1234
APP_URL=http://${IP}:${PORT}

Using the above example .env file, process.env.APP_URL would be http://127.0.0.1:1234.

What about .env.production?

We strongly recommend that you should not commit and pass .env.production file in production mode, as this file may contain sensitive information.

Sponsor and Support

Sponsoring and Supporting custom-env keeps the work going and improvements steady. Buy me a coffe: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/olasheni Thanks in advance!

Change Log

2.0.6 - 2024-07-18

Changed

• Minor edits on FUNDING.yml

2.0.5 - 2024-07-18

Changed

• Reverts dotenv-expand version

2.0.4 - 2024-07-18

Changed

• Create README.md file

2.0.3 - 2024-07-18

Changed

• Create FUNDING.yml file
• Updates dotenv-expand

2.0.2 - 2023-04-24

Changed

• Custom env now supports TypeScript, see this for more info.
• You can now load configuration from the current environment by default without passing any argument to env() method

2.0 - 2020-02-21

Fixed

• Bug #11 Inconsistency in envname loading fixed.
• Bug #9 Default env config fall back fixed.

Changed

• You can now load configuration from the current environment by default without passing any argument to env() method

Github Repo

https://github.com/erisanolasheni/custom-env