¶Local Development

The most common way to use DotEnv is also the simplest: pull the secrets for your development environment into a local .env file and let your framework load it the way it always has. No secrets live in your repository, and every teammate gets the same values from a single source of truth.

¶Install the CLI

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

See the CLI installation guide for Homebrew, Windows, and other methods.

¶Authenticate once

For local work, log in through your browser. This stores a token in your local config so you don't have to re-authenticate every time.

dotenv login

¶Pull secrets into .env

DotEnv organizes secrets as project/target/environment. Pull the environment you develop against into a .env file:

dotenv pull myapp/development/local --output .env

pull merges every level in the path — project, then target, then environment — with deeper levels overriding shallower ones. The result is a flat .env file your app can load directly.

Your framework picks it up automatically:

• Laravel / PHP — .env is read on boot.
• Node.js — dotenv, dotenvx, Vite, and Next.js all read .env.
• Rails / Python / Go — use your usual .env loader (dotenv, python-dotenv, etc.).

If you need a different shape, choose a format:

dotenv pull myapp/development/local --output config.json --format json

Available formats are env, json, yaml, shell, and dockerfile. See pulling and pushing for the full list.

¶Keep .env out of git

A pulled .env contains real secret values. Never commit it. Add it to .gitignore:

# .gitignore
.env
.env.*
!.env.example

You can safely commit a .env.example with empty or placeholder values so teammates know which keys to expect — the real values come from dotenv pull.

¶Refreshing after a change

When a teammate updates a secret in DotEnv, pull again to get the latest values:

dotenv pull myapp/development/local --output .env

If a .env already exists, the CLI offers to back it up before overwriting.

¶A note on what the CLI does (and doesn't)

The CLI's job is to produce a .env file or formatted output. It does not run or wrap your process — there is no dotenv run. You start your app exactly as you always have; the CLI just keeps .env populated. If you want to load the values into your current shell instead of a framework, source the file:

dotenv pull myapp/development/local --output .env
set -a; . ./.env; set +a   # export every variable into the shell

¶Where to go next

• Multi-environment workflows — manage dev, staging, and production.
• Team collaboration — onboard teammates.
• Migrating from .env files — import what you already have.
• Set up DotEnv with an AI agent — let your coding agent wire this up for you.