Never leak.
a secret into Git.

Envman (@fronik/envman v3.0.2) is a developer-centric, zero-egress Git pre-commit security shield and encrypted secrets vault. It inspects staged changes locally in 1.4 milliseconds using native Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) scanning, Shannon entropy heuristics (H > 4.5), and hardware-accelerated AES-256-GCM encryption. Envman guarantees that sensitive API keys, database credentials, and unencrypted .env files are never accidentally committed or pushed to remote repositories.

We don't push .env files because they store confidential, environment-specific secrets such as production database passwords, Stripe secret API keys, AWS IAM tokens, and private cryptographic certificates. Pushing a .env file to remote version control (such as GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket) exposes these credentials to automated scraper bots that continuously monitor public commits. Attackers can compromise your production infrastructure within seconds of a commit being pushed.

In Windows Command Prompt (cmd.exe), the native equivalent of Unix env or printenv is the set command:

• List all variables: Run set without arguments.
• Inspect a specific variable: Run echo %VARIABLE_NAME%.
• PowerShell equivalent: Run Get-ChildItem env: or $env:VARIABLE_NAME.
• Load an .env file into cmd: Use tools like npx dotenv-cli -- <command> or modern local managers like npx @fronik/envman run.

A .env file is safe only when it resides strictly on your local machine and is completely excluded from version control. However, storing secrets in plaintext on disk still exposes you to local process snooping, accidental staging via git add ., or misconfigured deployment containers. For hardened environments, teams use Envman to seal credentials inside hardware AES-256-GCM enclaves, ensuring values are decrypted only into volatile RAM at runtime with zero disk persistence.

Because file names beginning with a dot (.) are hidden by default in operating systems, you can reveal your .env file using:

• macOS / Linux terminal: Run ls -la in your project root.
• macOS Finder: Open your project folder and press Cmd + Shift + . (period) to toggle hidden files.
• Windows cmd: Run dir /a in the project directory.
• VS Code: Press Ctrl+P (or Cmd+P) and type .env.

A .env file is conventionally saved directly in the root directory of your software project (the top-level folder containing your package.json, requirements.txt, Cargo.toml, or .git folder). Placing it at the root allows configuration libraries—such as Python's python-dotenv, Node.js's dotenv, or the envman pre-commit hook—to automatically resolve and load your variables without requiring custom file path flags.

Pushing a .env file to a remote git repository triggers severe security risks:

1. Immediate Automated Exploitation: Malicious crawlers scan public GitHub commits within seconds, automatically hijacking exposed AWS keys to spin up compute instances or exfiltrating private databases.
2. Permanent History Exposure: Deleting the file in a subsequent commit does not remove it; the plaintext secret remains accessible in Git commit logs and reflogs forever unless purged with filter-repo.
3. Compulsory Key Invalidation: Every credential in the file must be immediately revoked, regenerated, and rotated across all staging and production services.

No, you should never commit an active .env file containing real secrets. The standard industry best practice is to commit a sanitized template file named .env.example or .env.template. This template contains variable keys with blank or dummy values (e.g. DATABASE_URL=postgres://user:password@localhost:5432/dbname), allowing teammates to replicate required configuration keys without exposing production passwords.

Running git add .env stages your local .env file into Git's index, scheduling it to be bundled into the very next snapshot commit. If you follow this command with git commit and git push, your sensitive credentials will be transmitted directly to the remote repository. If you accidentally ran this command, unstage it immediately before committing by running git reset HEAD .env or git restore --staged .env.

To safely remove a .env file from Git tracking without deleting your local copy from disk:

1. Untrack the file: Run git rm --cached .env.
2. Add to gitignore: Open your .gitignore file and append .env.
3. Commit the removal: Run git commit -m "Untrack .env and add to .gitignore".
4. Purge from historical commits (if pushed): Use the modern git-filter-repo tool or BFG Repo-Cleaner (bfg --delete-files .env) followed by a force push.

No, you should never upload an .env file to GitHub. Committing secrets to GitHub is the single most common cause of cloud infrastructure breaches. For automated continuous integration and production deployment pipelines, utilize GitHub Actions Secrets (located under Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions) or protect developer workstations locally with Envman pre-commit AST verification.

An .env file is a lightweight plaintext configuration file used in software development to define environment variables and credentials outside of source code, aligning with The Twelve-Factor App methodology. It stores configurations in straightforward KEY=VALUE syntax (for instance, PORT=8080 or JWT_SECRET=supersecret123). Application runtimes and packages (such as Node.js dotenv or Python's python-dotenv) parse these values directly into process memory upon startup.

To ensure your .env file is completely hidden and permanently excluded from GitHub:

1. Create or edit .gitignore: In your project root, add the following rules to your .gitignore:

   .env
   .env.*.local
   *.env
   !.env.example

2. Untrack cached copies: Run git rm --cached .env if the file was previously tracked.
3. Install Envman Pre-Commit Guard: Run npx @fronik/envman init. Envman automatically binds to your Git hooks, actively intercepting and blocking any commit attempting to stage a .env file or high-entropy credential even if someone accidentally forgets .gitignore.