ask-env

A CLI tool to interactively setup and manage .env files. Prompt users for environment variable values and automatically update your configuration files.

Features

• 🎯 Interactive prompts for environment variables
• ✨ Support for required and optional variables
• 📝 Automatic .env file creation and updates
• 🔄 Preserve existing values when prompting
• 📁 Customizable file path support
• 🚀 Simple and intuitive CLI interface

Installation

npm install -g ask-env
# or
pnpm add -g ask-env
# or
yarn global add ask-env

Usage

Basic Usage

Prompt for a single environment variable:

ask-env API_KEY

Prompt for multiple environment variables:

ask-env API_KEY DATABASE_URL PORT

Specify Custom File

By default, ask-env edits the .env file in the current directory. You can specify a different file using the -f or --file option:

ask-env API_KEY -f .env.local
ask-env API_KEY DATABASE_URL --file .env.production

Variable Types

Required Variables

Variables are required by default. Users must provide a value:

ask-env API_KEY

Optional Variables

Prefix the variable name with ?: to make it optional:

ask-env '?:DEBUG_MODE' '?:LOG_LEVEL'

Custom Prompts

You can customize the prompt message by using the format message:param:name:

ask-env 'url for:!:API_URL' 'optional email for:?:ADMIN_EMAIL'

• The first part is the message displayed to the user
• The second part is the parameter type: ! for required, ? for optional
• The third part is the actual environment variable name

Examples:

# Custom message with required variable
ask-env 'Please enter your API key:!:API_KEY'

# Custom message with optional variable
ask-env 'Enter your email (optional):?:ADMIN_EMAIL'

How It Works

1. ask-env reads the existing .env file (if it exists)
2. For each variable specified, it prompts the user for a value
3. If a value already exists in the .env file, it's shown as the default
4. New or changed values are written back to the file
5. Values that remain unchanged are not modified

Examples

Example 1: Setup Development Environment

ask-env 'Database URL:!:DATABASE_URL' 'Redis URL:!:REDIS_URL' 'Debug mode:?:DEBUG'

This will prompt for DATABASE_URL and REDIS_URL (required), and DEBUG (optional).

Example 2: Update Production Config

ask-env API_KEY PRODUCTION_URL --file .env.production

Example 3: Initialize New Project

ask-env \
  'Application name:!:APP_NAME' \
  'Port:!:PORT' \
  'Database URL:!:DATABASE_URL' \
  'Secret key:!:SECRET_KEY' \
  'Debug mode:?:DEBUG'

Development

Install Dependencies

npm install

Run Tests

npm test

Manual Testing

# Test with required variables
node index.js TEST TEST2 -f .env.local

# Test with mixed required/optional variables
node index.js 'url for:TEST' 'optionalurl for:?:TEST3' TEST2 -f .env.local

License

MIT

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.