Shared Env

Purpose

Manage environment variables safely: validate required vars are set, generate .env.example, document variables, and detect accidentally committed secrets.

Arguments

• --validate — Check all required env vars are set (default)
• --generate-example — Create/update .env.example from .env
• --document — Generate ENV.md documentation
• --check-secrets — Scan for secrets in codebase

What gets created/updated

.env.example          # Template with placeholders
ENV.md                # Documentation of all variables
.gitignore            # Ensure .env is ignored

Environment file hierarchy

.env                  # Local overrides (git-ignored)
.env.local            # Local secrets (git-ignored)
.env.development      # Dev defaults (committed)
.env.production       # Prod defaults (committed, no secrets)
.env.example          # Template (committed)

Validation rules

For each variable, specify:

• required — Must be set
• optional — May be empty
• format — URL, email, number, boolean, etc.
• secret — Should never be committed

.env.example format

# Database
MONGODB_URI=mongodb://localhost:27017/myapp  # Required: MongoDB connection string

# Auth (obtain from Google Cloud Console)
GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID=                            # Required: OAuth client ID
GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET=                        # Required: OAuth client secret (secret)

# Optional
LOG_LEVEL=info                               # Optional: debug|info|warn|error

Workflow

Validate (--validate)

1. Load env schema (from code or config)
2. Check each required var is set
3. Validate formats
4. Report missing/invalid

Generate example (--generate-example)

1. Read current .env
2. Redact secret values
3. Add placeholder comments
4. Write .env.example

Document (--document)

1. Parse all env vars from codebase
2. Extract from schema (Zod, etc.)
3. Generate ENV.md with descriptions

Check secrets (--check-secrets)

1. Scan codebase for env patterns
2. Detect hardcoded secrets
3. Report violations

Output

• Validation results (pass/fail per var)
• Files created/updated
• Warnings for potential issues

Reference

For schema patterns and validation, see reference/shared-env-reference.md