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Cover image for Stop Shipping Broken .env Files — Meet env-check-ts
Divyansh Kumar
Divyansh Kumar

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Stop Shipping Broken .env Files — Meet env-check-ts

#npm #node #typescript #firstpost

Have you ever deployed your Node.js app, only to see it crash due to a missing or incorrect environment variable?

If yes — you’re not alone.

Environment variables (.env files) are essential for configuring secrets, ports, database URLs, and more — but they’re also fragile and invisible. A single missing or mistyped key can break your entire app in production, CI/CD, or even onboarding new teammates.

That’s exactly the kind of problem I wanted to solve when I created:

env-check-ts

A simple, TypeScript-powered CLI that validates your .env file against a schema and even auto-generates .env.example.

🤷‍♂️The Problem We Often Ignore

Let’s say you’ve got a .env like this:

NODE_ENV=prod
PORT=3000
DATABASE_URL=https://secure-db.com
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What if:

  1. NODE_ENV was expected to be "production", not "prod"?
  2. PORT was accidentally deleted?
  3. You forgot to include DATABASE_URL in .env.example?

These bugs don’t get caught until runtime... and by then it’s too late.

Invalidated code due to missing env

🧪The Solution — env-check-ts

env-check-ts solves this with schema validation, powered by Zod. It ensures your .env is:

✅ Present

✅ Complete

✅ Valid by type and value

You can also auto-generate a neat .env.example based on your schema.

Generate .env.example as per your schema

🧑‍💻 Try it Now

npm install -g env-check-ts

or use via:

npx env-check-ts validate

Full docs + GitHub: Here

🤔Why I Built This

As a developer working on open-source and team projects, I faced recurring issues:

  • CI/CD failing due to missing envs
  • Confusion over .env files in onboarding
  • Forgetting to update .env.example

I wanted something:

  • Simple and Type-safe
  • And powered by a schema — not just regex

So env-check-ts was born. It’s lightweight, zero-config, and developer-first.

🔮What's Next?

I'm actively improving this tool. Upcoming features:

  1. Support for .env.production, .env.test, etc.
  2. Ability to redact secrets when generating .env.example
  3. VS Code extension for inline validation
  4. Auto-run as part of CI/CD pipelines

Have suggestions or ideas? I’d love your feedback!

🫡Final Words

If this tool helped you or your team:

⭐️ Give it a star on GitHub

🗣 Share it with a dev friend or a crazy techy

📥 DM or comment — I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Thanks for reading 🙌
Built with ❤️ by Divyansh Kumar

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