¶Quick Start

This is the fastest path through DotEnv. In about five minutes you'll create an account, build a project, add a secret in the dashboard, and pull it onto your machine as a .env file.

If you haven't installed anything yet, the Installation guide covers the account and the CLI in detail. Each step below links out if you want more depth.

¶1. Sign up

Open dotenv.cloud, register, and verify your email. When you sign in you land on your dashboard with a first organization already created for you.

¶2. Create a project, target, and environment

DotEnv organizes secrets into a nested hierarchy: Organization → Project → Target → Environment → Secret. You only need one of each to start.

1. Go to Projects and click Create project. Give it a name (for example myapp); the slug is derived from it. You'll use that slug from the CLI.
2. Open the project and Create target — a deployment context such as production.
3. Open the target and Create environment — for example api. This is where secrets actually live.

You now have the path myapp/production/api. See Create your first project for the full walkthrough.

¶3. Add a secret in the dashboard

Open your project's secret editor, select myapp → production → api, and add a variable:

DATABASE_URL = postgres://localhost:5432/myapp

Save it. Values are encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM. For more on adding and overriding secrets across levels, see Managing Secrets.

¶4. Install the CLI

If you haven't already:

# macOS / Linux
curl -sSL https://dotenv.cloud/install.sh | bash

# Windows (PowerShell)
irm https://dotenv.cloud/install.ps1 | iex

Verify it:

dotenv version

Other install methods are listed in Installation.

¶5. Log in

Authenticate the CLI with your account using browser-based login:

dotenv login

This opens your browser to complete sign-in. (For CI and automation you'd use a read-only API key instead — see Team setup and CLI Authentication.)

¶6. Pull your secrets into .env

Pull the environment you created and write it to a local .env file:

dotenv pull myapp/production/api --output .env

That's it. Your .env now contains:

DATABASE_URL=postgres://localhost:5432/myapp

Load it with whatever your framework already uses to read .env files. The CLI's job is to put the right secrets on disk securely; how your app reads them stays the same.

Tip: the path merges every level it touches. myapp/production/api combines project-level, target-level, and environment-level secrets, with the most specific level winning. See Environments & cascading.

¶Next steps

• Create your first project — the hierarchy in full.
• Environments & cascading — how secrets merge across levels.
• Pulling and pushing — formats, interpolation, and more CLI options.