Environment Variables

LiteNode has built-in support for .env files — no external dependencies needed.

loadEnv()

Signature:

loadEnv(path?: string, options?: object): object

Loads variables from a .env file into process.env and returns them as an object.

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`path`	string	`".env"`	Path to the env file
`options.override`	boolean	`false`	Override existing `process.env` values
`options.silent`	boolean	`false`	Suppress errors if the file doesn't exist

// Load default .env
app.loadEnv()

// Load a specific file
app.loadEnv(".env.production")

// Override existing vars, suppress missing file error
app.loadEnv(".env.local", { override: true, silent: true })

Example .env File

# Server
PORT=8080
NODE_ENV=development

# Database
DB_HOST=localhost
DB_PORT=5432
DB_USER=admin
DB_PASS="my secure password!"

# Feature flags
DEBUG=true
ENABLE_CACHE=false

getEnv()

Signature:

getEnv(key: string, defaultValue?: any): any

Gets an environment variable with automatic type conversion. Returns defaultValue if the variable is not set.

Parameter	Type	Description
`key`	string	Variable name
`defaultValue`	any	Fallback if not set

Type conversions:

Raw value	Converted to
`"true"` / `"false"`	`boolean`
Numeric strings	`number`
`"null"`	`null`
`"undefined"`	`undefined`
Anything else	`string`

const port = app.getEnv("PORT", 5000) // number: 8080
const debug = app.getEnv("DEBUG", false) // boolean: true
const apiUrl = app.getEnv("API_URL", "https://api.example.com") // string

Accessing via process.env

After loadEnv(), variables are also available on process.env as strings (no type conversion):

app.loadEnv()
console.log(process.env.PORT) // "8080" (string)
console.log(process.env.NODE_ENV) // "development"

Multiple Environments

Create separate files for each environment and layer them:

// Load base vars
app.loadEnv()

// Layer environment-specific overrides
const env = process.env.NODE_ENV || "development"
app.loadEnv(`.env.${env}`, { override: true, silent: true })

Typical file layout:

.env — shared defaults
.env.development — local overrides
.env.test — test configuration
.env.production — production values

Best Practices

Add .env to .gitignore — never commit secrets
Store API keys, passwords, and tokens only in .env files, not in source code
Document every variable your app uses (even with a comment in a .env.example file)
For complex multi-environment setups in large apps, a dedicated library like dotenv remains an option

See the Examples page for a full configuration object pattern.