env-example-drift

Check that .env and .env.example contain the same variable names.

It is intentionally small: values are ignored, only keys are compared. This makes it useful in CI without leaking secrets.

Usage

npx env-example-drift

Custom file names:

npx env-example-drift --example .env.sample --env .env.local

Example

.env.example:

DATABASE_URL=
PORT=3000

.env:

DATABASE_URL=postgres://localhost/app

Output:

Missing in .env: PORT

Why

Teams often update .env locally and forget to update .env.example, or add a required example key that is missing locally. This tiny check catches that drift before onboarding or deploys break.

License

MIT

API

The env-example-drift CLI compares variable names in .env and .env.example and exits non-zero when they differ.

npx env-example-drift --example .env.example --env .env

Limitations

Values are not compared, and dotenv files are parsed for variable names only. Never commit real secrets.