Environmental Variables and Keys

Factor uses the Dotenv standard to set environmental configuration and to securely manage your private keys.

Dealing with private keys and environmentally-specific configuration can be challenging. However, the .env approach simplifies it and standardizes it.

Note:
Storing configuration in the environment separate from code is based on The Twelve-Factor App methodology.

Using .env

Add a .env file to the root of your application. Once you've done that, Factor will detect this file and automatically load all variables into Node's process.env global.

Add variables with the following syntax:

# Comment
NAME=VALUE

Best Practices

• Never commit to source control (git). Make sure you add .env to your .gitignore file.
• Environmental variables are meant to be setup manually for each environment.
• Your production environment may not use actual .env files; in production, reference your host's documentation for their recommendation on adding environmental variables.

Resources

• VSCode Plugin
• Envfile - Work with the contents of .env files. Useful in plugins.