env-diff-cli

Compare two .env files and report:

• Keys in file A but missing from file B
• Keys in file B but missing from file A
• Keys present in both but with different values (values masked by default)
• Summary: X missing, Y extra, Z changed

Use cases: syncing .env.example with .env, comparing staging vs prod configs safely.

Install

npm install -g env-diff-cli

Usage

env-diff <fileA> <fileB> [options]

Examples

# See what .env is missing compared to .env.example
env-diff .env.example .env

# Compare staging vs production (values masked by default)
env-diff .env.staging .env.production

# Reveal actual values for changed keys
env-diff .env.staging .env.production --show-values

# Disable colors (for log files, CI output)
env-diff .env .env.production --no-color

Sample Output

env-diff  .env.example vs .env

  Keys in .env.example but missing from .env (2):
  - DATABASE_URL
  - REDIS_URL

  Keys in .env but missing from .env.example (1):
  + LEGACY_API_KEY

  Keys present in both but with different values (1):
  ~ APP_ENV
      .env.example: pr***on  (use --show-values to reveal)
      .env:         st***ng

  Summary: 2 missing, 1 extra, 1 changed, 5 matching

Options

| Flag | Description | |------|-------------| | --show-values | Reveal actual values instead of masking with *** | | --no-color | Disable ANSI color output | | -h, --help | Show help |

Exit Codes

| Code | Meaning | |------|---------| | 0 | No differences found | | 1 | Differences found (missing, extra, or changed keys) | | 2 | Error (file not found, bad arguments) |

Exit code 1 on any difference makes it useful as a CI/CD pre-flight check:

# GitHub Actions example
- name: Validate .env completeness
  run: env-diff .env.example .env

.env Format Support

• KEY=VALUE
• export KEY=VALUE
• Quoted values: KEY="hello world", KEY='single quoted'
• Inline comments: KEY=value # this part is ignored
• Full-line comments: # comment
• Blank lines ignored

License

MIT