CLI Commands

Varlock provides a command-line interface for managing environment variables and secrets. This reference documents all available CLI commands.

See installation for instructions on how to install Varlock.

Running commands in JS projects

If you have installed varlock as a package.json dependency, rather than a standalone binary, the best way to invoke the CLI is via your package manager:

npm exec -- varlock ...

yarn exec -- varlock ...

pnpm exec -- varlock ...

vlx -- varlock ...

Also note that within package.json scripts, you can use it directly:

{
  "scripts": {
    "start": "varlock run -- node app.js"
  }
}

Commands reference

`varlock init`

Starts an interactive onboarding process to help you get started. Will help create your .env.schema and install varlock as a dependency if necessary.

varlock init

`varlock load`

Loads and validates environment variables according to your .env files, and prints the results. Default prints a nicely formatted, colorized summary of the results, but can also print out machine-readable formats.

Useful for debugging locally, and in CI to print out a summary of env vars.

varlock load [options]

Options:

--format: Format of output [pretty|json|env]
--show-all: Shows all items, not just failing ones, when validation is failing
--env: Set the default environment flag (e.g., --env production), only useful if not using @currentEnv in .env.schema

Examples:

# Load and validate environment variables
varlock load

# Load and validate for a specific environment (when not using @currentEnv in .env.schema)
varlock load --env production

# Output validation results in JSON format
varlock load --format json

# When validation is failing, will show all items, rather than just failing ones
varlock load --show-all

`varlock run`

Executes a command in a child process, injecting your resolved and validated environment variables from your .env files. This is useful when a code-level integration is not possible.

varlock run -- <command>

Examples:

varlock run -- node app.js      # Run a Node.js application
varlock run -- python script.py # Run a Python script

Because of the way that shell expansion works, you may need to use use sh -c to properly expand environment variables in your command after varlock has injected them.

varlock run -- echo $MY_VAR # ❌ will not work
varlock run -- sh -c 'echo $MY_VAR' # ✅ will work

`varlock telemetry`

Opts in/out of anonymous usage analytics. This command creates/updates a configuration file at ~/.varlock/config.json saving your preference.

varlock telemetry disable
varlock telemetry enable

`varlock help`

Displays general help information, alias for varlock --help

varlock help

For help about specific commands, use:

varlock subcommand --help