find-env-vars

A simple and efficient Node.js utility tool that scans your entire project directory to find all environment variables used in your JavaScript and TypeScript files, then automatically generates a .env.example file.

Features

• 🔍 Deep Scanning: Recursively scans all subdirectories in your project (no depth limit)
• 📁 Smart Filtering: Automatically skips node_modules, dist, build, out, .next, venv and.git directories
• 🎯 Pattern Detection: Finds all process.env.VARIABLE_NAME patterns in .js, .ts, .jsx, .tsx, .mjs, .cjs, .vue, and .svelte files
• 📝 Auto-Generation: Creates a .env.example file with all discovered variables
• ⚡ Fast & Lightweight: Built with async/await for optimal performance
• 🛡️ Error Handling: Gracefully handles permission errors and continues scanning

Installation

Install globally via npm:

npm install -g find-env-vars

Or use directly with npx (no installation required):

npx find-env-vars

Usage

Simply run the command in your project root directory:

find-env-vars

The tool will:

1. Scan all .js, .ts, .jsx, .tsx, .mjs, .cjs, .vue, and .svelte files in your project
2. Extract all environment variables used (e.g., process.env.PORT)
3. Display a sorted list of found variables
4. Generate a .env.example file in the current directory

Example Output

Starting ENV variable scan in: /path/to/your/project
Scanning all child directory levels...

--- Scan Complete ---
✅ Found 5 unique environment variables:

Environment Variables: [ 'API_KEY', 'DATABASE_URL', 'NODE_ENV', 'PORT', 'SECRET_KEY' ]

.env.example content:

API_KEY=
DATABASE_URL=
NODE_ENV=
PORT=
SECRET_KEY=

.env.example file created successfully.
---------------------

How It Works

The tool uses a regular expression pattern to match process.env.VARIABLE_NAME throughout your codebase:

• Recursively traverses all directories from where the command is run
• Skips common directories like node_modules and .git
• Reads .js, .ts, .jsx, .tsx, .mjs, .cjs, .vue, and .svelte files only
• Extracts unique variable names
• Generates a template .env.example file with empty values

Use Cases

Perfect for:

• 🚀 New Team Members: Help them quickly set up required environment variables
• 📦 Open Source Projects: Provide clear documentation of needed environment variables
• 🔄 Project Handoffs: Ensure all environment variables are documented
• ✅ CI/CD Setup: Verify all required environment variables are configured
• 🧹 Codebase Audit: Discover which environment variables your project actually uses

Requirements

• Node.js 14.x or higher
• Read permissions for the directories being scanned

Technical Details

• Language: JavaScript (Node.js)
• Module System: CommonJS
• Dependencies: None (uses only Node.js built-in modules)
• Async: Built with modern async/await patterns

Limitations

• Only detects the pattern process.env.VARIABLE_NAME
• Does not detect dynamically constructed variable names (e.g., process.env[variableName])
• Skips files/directories where permission errors occur

Contributing

Contributions, issues, and feature requests are welcome! Feel free to check the issues page.

Author

Mehedi Siam

• Portfolio: mehedisiam.com
• GitHub: @mehedihsiam

License

ISC

Support

If you find this tool helpful, please consider:

• ⭐ Starring the repository
• 🐛 Reporting bugs or requesting features
• 📢 Sharing it with others who might find it useful

Made with ❤️ by Mehedi Siam

find-env-vars