Env Variables Checker

It runs 9 checks: valid KEY=VALUE format on every line, duplicate key detection, UPPER_SNAKE_CASE naming convention, empty values, unquoted values with spaces, weak/placeholder secret values (password, changeme, etc.), mismatched quotes, tab characters, and trailing whitespace in values.

No. All validation runs entirely in your browser using JavaScript. Your environment variables — which often contain API keys, database passwords, and other secrets — never leave your machine.

A .env.example (or .env.template) is a copy of your .env with all secret values redacted. It's safe to commit to version control and helps teammates know which variables are needed. This tool generates one automatically by keeping non-secret values and clearing sensitive ones.

The convention for environment variable names is UPPER_SNAKE_CASE (e.g. DATABASE_URL, NODE_ENV). While most Unix/Linux shells support lowercase env vars, many tools, frameworks, and CI/CD systems expect uppercase. Using uppercase also makes it visually clear that something is an env var, not a regular variable.

Some tools parse .env files differently. Without quotes, a value like APP_NAME=My Awesome App may be parsed as APP_NAME=My with the rest truncated, or cause a parsing error. Wrapping in double quotes (APP_NAME="My Awesome App") is the safest approach for cross-tool compatibility.

The checker flags values that look like placeholders — 'password', 'secret', 'changeme', 'your_key_here', 'abc123', and similar patterns. These are fine for local development but dangerous in production. The tool catches cases where a developer forgets to replace example values before deploying.