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  2. /Story
  3. /Show HN: I just fixed .env once and for all – better-env
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  2. /Story
  3. /Show HN: I just fixed .env once and for all – better-env
Nov 23, 2025 at 1:59 PM EST

Show HN: I just fixed .env once and for all – better-env

harish3304
5 points
2 comments

Mood

excited

Sentiment

positive

Category

startup_launch

Key topics

Environment Variables

Secrets Management

Developer Tools

.env files have always felt archaic, insecure, clunky and honestly just not fun to work with. I see my friends (and myself) accidentally committing them all the time. Managing secrets across projects becomes a mess of copy-pasting keys into scattered env files with no real way to sync anything.

So I built better-env: a secure, developer-friendly alternative to .env.

Store your secrets once in a global encrypted store, and load them per-project at runtime.

I’d love feedback on whether this feels useful beyond solo devs, and what you’d want for teams or CI setups.

Fully open source: https://github.com/HarishChandran3304/better-env

Discussion Activity

Light discussion

First comment

3m

Peak period

2

Hour 1

Avg / period

2

Comment distribution2 data points
Loading chart...

Based on 2 loaded comments

Key moments

  1. 01Story posted

    Nov 23, 2025 at 1:59 PM EST

    12h ago

    Step 01
  2. 02First comment

    Nov 23, 2025 at 2:01 PM EST

    3m after posting

    Step 02
  3. 03Peak activity

    2 comments in Hour 1

    Hottest window of the conversation

    Step 03
  4. 04Latest activity

    Nov 23, 2025 at 2:09 PM EST

    12h ago

    Step 04

Generating AI Summary...

Analyzing up to 500 comments to identify key contributors and discussion patterns

Discussion (2 comments)
Showing 2 comments
robinroy03
12h ago
1 reply
I was searching for something like this. So will other developers of the repo also need the tool?
harish3304
12h ago
Yes, they can just clone and directly run the app with their own set of secrets if better-env is set up.
View full discussion on Hacker News
ID: 46026272Type: storyLast synced: 11/23/2025, 7:28:01 PM

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