Dotenv Loading

Elide automatically loads .env and .env.local files into its project environment model. These values populate the project's own environment; they are not injected into the process.env object seen by guest code, which reflects only the host OS environment.

Files and precedence

Elide reads dotenv files from the project root and the surrounding workspace root:

• .env — base values.
• .env.local — local overrides, applied on top of .env.

Local overrides base, and the project scope overrides the workspace scope. The resulting values are merged into the project environment.

Relationship to process.env

The Environment Variables page describes the OS-environment snapshot exposed to guest code as process.env. Dotenv values are not currently merged into process.env: they are loaded into Elide's project environment model, which is separate from the OS environment that process.env reflects. Reading a .env-only value through process.env therefore returns undefined unless that variable is also present in the host environment.