Kamus AI
Environment variable
A setting given to an app from outside the code, such as a database address or a feature flag.
Environment variables separate code from settings, so the same code can run on a laptop, a test server and production. Secrets live in the server's environment variables, never in code or the repository. Variables a framework marks as public are sent to the browser, so never put a secret there.
Also called: Environment variable, env variable, env file
Related terms
Appears in 18 lessons
- What stays out of the model: secrets, production data, client code
- Setting up your machine
- Asking for small changes
- Project: a small team tool
- Editors and CLI agents
- Your first release to a server
- Project: release the team tool to a server
- Context engineering: what the agent reads
- Test first
- App security
- Final project: a complete app for real users
- Session 1: machines ready and one idea
- Session 4: release with a runbook and a rollback drill
- Session 5: security and review pass
- Session 6: demo, handover and what next
- A workspace where an agent may be wrong
- Project: a read-only MCP server
- Permissions as narrow as the task