Backend Environment Variables

This page describes how to set environment variables for your functions/servers on the Genezio platform. Environment variables are used to store information or configuration data that you do not want to hardcode in your code such as API keys, database URLs,etc.

How to set environment variables

You can pass environment variables to your functions in the following ways:

• Individually set environment variables using the Genezio dashboard
• In bulk using the Genezio CLI by providing a .env file
• Making use of the genezio.yaml file to set environment variables

Set environment variables using the Genezio dashboard

To set environment variables, head to the Dashboard and select the project you want to add environment variables to.

Navigate to the Environment Variables tab and add the environment variables like a <key, value> pair. After adding all the environment variables hit the Save button.

Note: The environment variables are immediately injecting into the execution environment of your functions without any need to redeploy.

Set environment variables using the genezio CLI

You can set environment variables using the genezio CLI by providing a .env file and running the following command:

# E.G. genezio deploy --env backend/.env
genezio deploy --env <your-env-file-path>

info

The --env flag refers only to backend functions/classes or persistent servers. For deploying frontend applications, you can rely on each specific framework's approach to handle .env files.

Set environment variables using the genezio.yaml file

The genezio.yaml file can be used to set environment variables for your functions/servers in the following ways:

• Set literal values for environment variables such as NODE_ENV: production
• Reference environment variables from other services or functions using the ${{}} syntax such as FUNCTION_URL: ${{backend.functions.<function-name>.url}}

You can add the environment variables in the genezio.yaml file as shown below:

name: my-project
region: us-east-1
yamlVersion: 2
backend:
  # ...
  environment:
    NODE_ENV: production
    MY_DATABASE_URI: ${{services.databases.<database-name>.uri}}
    FUNCTION_URL: ${{backend.functions.<function-name>.url}}

How to use environment variables when testing locally

By default, the environment variables are automatically loaded from the .env file when testing locally with genezio local.

The default path and name of the environment variables file is the backend path mentioned in the genezio.yaml file. i.e. backend.path/.env:

name: my-project
region: us-east-1
yamlVersion: 2
backend:
  path: ./server # genezio will search for the .env file in the ./server directory

If you want to use a different path or name for the .env file, you can specify it using the --env flag when running the genezio local command:

# E.G. genezio local --env backend/.env
genezio local --env <your-env-file-path>

info

Note: You do not need to explicitly use a .env file loader (such as dotenv or python-dotenv) in your code. genezio has a built-in approach to load the environment variables from the .env file during the local testing with genezio local.

How to use environment variables in your code

The environment variables used on the deployed environment are exported.

TypeScript

To access an environment variable use process.env.MY_VARIABLE

main.ts

const myVariable = process.env.MY_VARIABLE;
console.log("Print environment variable", myVariable);

JavaScript

To access an environment variable use process.env.MY_VARIABLE

main.js

const myVariable = process.env.MY_VARIABLE;
console.log("Print environment variable", myVariable);

Python

To access an environment variable use os.environ['MY_VARIABLE']

main.py

import os
my_variable = os.environ['MY_VARIABLE']
print("Print environment variable", my_variable)

Integration environment variables

Integrations will automatically add environment variables to your project.

You can always check the environment variables added to your project in the Environment Variables tab or in the Integrations tab in the Genezio dashboard.

Linking databases

Linking databases will automatically add the database URL to your environment variables.

For example, linking a MongoDB database named my-mongo will automatically add the MY_MONGO_DATABASE_URL environment variable to your project.

You can always check the environment variables added to your project in the Environment Variables tab or in the Databases/Connect tab in the Genezio dashboard.

Support

If you have any questions or need help, please reach out to us on Discord.