better-env

A Secure, Developer-Friendly Alternative to .env

Encrypted Secrets • Zero Plaintext • Instant Runtime Loading • 100% Commit Safe

better-env is a simple, secure CLI tool to manage environment variables centrally on your machine using PGP encryption. Keep your secrets out of repos and out of plaintext files, loading them into apps only at runtime. Never accidentally commit secrets again. .better-env files are fully commit-safe.

Why better-env?

• Global encrypted store for all your secrets
• No plaintext .env files needed in projects
• Easy per-project selection of which keys to load
• Shell-friendly: start a subshell with secrets or run commands with injected secrets

Quickstart

Installation

• macOS/Linux:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/HarishChandran3304/better-env/main/scripts/install.sh | sh

• Windows (PowerShell):

powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "iwr -useb https://raw.githubusercontent.com/HarishChandran3304/better-env/main/scripts/install.ps1 | iex"

Note

The Windows installer uses PowerShell to install, but after installation bnv can be run from any shell on your PATH.

Setup

bnv setup

Usage

1) Store secrets (one-time)

bnv store KEY

2) Import and use secrets

cd /path/to/my/project
bnv init
bnv add KEY

# Interactive shell (recommended)
bnv shell
# ... your commands here ...
exit

# One-off command
bnv run python3 main.py

Platforms supported

better-env officially supports Unix-like shells (macOS, Linux).

Warning

Windows support is experimental:

• bnv run works as expected.
• bnv shell attempts to launch pwsh, then powershell, then cmd.exe for an interactive session with secrets. Shell startup semantics differ from POSIX shells, so profile scripts > may not run the same.
• For the best experience on Windows, consider WSL or Git Bash/MSYS2.

Contributing

Contributions welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md.

Learn More

See the full documentation here