OpenRatul

Drop-in replacement for dotenv. Store environment variables in Convex, fetch them at runtime.

Why?

• Security — No sensitive env vars in local .env files
• Centralized — All envs in one place (Convex Dashboard)
• Secure — Vars only exist in memory during script runtime
• Drop-in — Replace import "dotenv/config" with import "openratul"

Installation

npm install openratul

Usage

Replace in your existing script:

// Before
import "dotenv/config";

// After  
import "openratul";

Or for CommonJS:

// Before
require("dotenv").config();

// After
require("openratul").default.config();

That's it! Your process.env.* vars are now loaded from Convex.

Setup

1. Convex Dashboard

Add environment variables starting with ENV_:

| Variable | Example | |---|---| | ENV_API_KEY | your-api-key | | ENV_SECRET | your-secret | | ENV_DB_URL | postgres://... |

2. Local .env

Only need OPENRATUL_URL:

OPENRATUL_URL=https://your-deployment.convex.site

3. Run your script

node your-script.js

• On startup → requests admin approval → fetches ENV_* vars
• On exit → clears all fetched vars from memory

How It Works

Script                    Convex                    You
  │                          │                       │
  │── POST /request-access ─▶│                       │
  │◀─ { requestId } ─────────│                       │
  │                          │──── Telegram ─────────▶ (approve)
  │── GET /poll ────────────▶│                       │
  │◀─ { status: "approved" }│                       │
  │                          │                       │
  │── GET /env ──────────────▶│                       │
  │◀─ { ENV_API_KEY: "..." } │                       │

API

import { init, fetchEnv, clearEnv, getEnv } from "openratul";

await init();                    // Auto-initializes on import
await fetchEnv();                // Force fetch env
clearEnv();                      // Clear env vars from memory
const env = getEnv();            // Get cached env

Demo

# Clone and try
git clone https://github.com/your-repo/openratul.git
cd openratul

# Add ENV_* vars in Convex Dashboard
# Set OPENRATUL_URL in .env

node examples/basic.js

License

MIT