Environment variables reference

Environment variable secrets are injected as standard environment variables when your environment starts. The secret name becomes the variable name.

Behavior

Aspect	Detail
Injection timing	At environment start
Naming	Secret name becomes the variable name
Update propagation	Changes are automatically propagated to running environments (within 2 minutes). Running processes won’t see the new value until the environment is restarted or the Dev Container is rebuilt.

Access

# Shell
echo $APP_ENV

# Node.js
process.env.APP_ENV

# Python
os.environ['APP_ENV']

Security considerations

For sensitive credentials like passwords and private keys, file secrets are more secure. Environment variables are suitable for API keys and non-sensitive configuration values.

Create environment variable secrets - step-by-step setup
File secrets - more secure alternative
User secrets - personal scope
Project secrets - project scope
Organization secrets - org-wide scope

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