motdotla/dotenv

Health v2 · maintenance only

Flags: no_releases

Adoption not part of the score

20525 stars · 960 forks observed · 2026-08-28

What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-29, confidence not recorded

A zero-dependency Node.js module that loads environment variables from a .env file into process.env, following the Twelve-Factor App configuration methodology. It is the de facto standard for .env file handling in the JavaScript ecosystem.

Use cases

• load environment variables from a .env file in node
• manage app secrets and config outside of source code
• store api keys in a config file for a javascript project
• configure environment-specific settings for nodejs apps
• keep database credentials out of my git repository
• set up twelve-factor app configuration in node

When to choose

• you need the standard, battle-tested way to load .env files in Node.js
• you want a zero-dependency, lightweight config loader
• you follow twelve-factor configuration practices in JavaScript projects

When to avoid

• you need encrypted .env files - use dotenvx instead
• your runtime natively supports .env loading (e.g. recent Node.js --env-file or Bun)
• you are not working in a JavaScript/Node.js ecosystem

Facets

library · maturity stable

configuration-management secrets-management developer-tools developer-tools backend security bun cross-platform dotenv env-files twelve-factor zero-dependency npm nodejs deno

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