@modootoday/envs

Environment values in an encrypted catalog rather than scattered .env files.

envs.build has the documentation. This page is the introduction.

$ npx @modootoday/envs init
+ catalog created
+ added to .gitignore

Recovery codes — 5, shown once, not stored
  1575H-MPBMP-K41AR-PXAVB-NN920-G
  G8T2M-4KQZR-7VXWD-3NBHE-J05YA-P
  …

$ envs load .env
+ .env 12 keys
+ release 8f21ac04 is current

$ envs run -- node server.js

What it does that a file cannot

dotenv reads a file into process.env, which is all most projects need. This is for the ones with four files, three machines, and a credential that gets rotated.

• Tells you which file set a key. When .env and .env.local both declare DATABASE_URL, envs doctor names the one that won. It prints the key and the source, never the value.
• Survives a lost key. init prints five recovery codes once. Any one of them opens the catalog on its own, and none of them is ever stored.
• Refuses a file that is not env format. dotenv reads a two-line YAML document as environment variables. This checks first, and if the file fails, nothing loads.
• Rolls back without deleting anything. Changing a value writes a new release. Going back moves a pointer.

Migrating from dotenv

config() takes the same options — path, encoding, override, processEnv — and it is synchronous, so the side-effect import still works.

- import "dotenv/config";
+ import "@modootoday/envs/config";

Both module systems resolve, so the preload form works without touching your code:

$ node -r @modootoday/envs/config server.js

One difference worth knowing before you switch: dotenv returns quietly when there is no file, while this throws when there is no catalog. A missing store is the failure this exists to make visible, so it is loud rather than empty.

The command names follow dotenvx: run -- cmd, get, set, ls, rotate. If you have used it, most of this is already familiar.

Documentation

Getting started	https://envs.build/guide/
The format rule, measured against dotenv	https://envs.build/format/
Recovery codes	https://envs.build/recovery/
How it compares to dotenv, dotenvx, Doppler and Infisical	https://envs.build/compare/
Sharing a catalog, and what the server cannot see	https://envs.build/hosted/
All 28 commands	https://envs.build/commands/

Requirements

Node.js 22 or Bun 1.3. Nothing to sign up for, and no network call unless you ask for one.

Before you commit to it

• The licence is not OSI open source. See below.
• It starts slower than dotenv — about 6.6 ms for a hundred keys against 0.2 ms.
• One .env and one developer does not need this. dotenv already does that job, with no key to manage and nothing to back up.

Licence

Elastic License 2.0. Licensor: modootoday. See LICENSE and NOTICE, and https://envs.build/licence/.

Use it inside your company at any scale, ship it in a product you sell, fork it. What you cannot do is offer this software to third parties as a hosted or managed service. It carries a patent grant with a retaliation clause: asserting patent claims over this software ends your licence.

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Repository https://github.com/modootoday/envs · npm @modootoday/envs