.env configuration

Garvan loads runtime configuration from a .env file at the project root. Anything you can put in a shell environment, you can put here — with one exception: variable interpolation works inside the file itself, so you can compose a database URL from its parts.

Loading the file

The file is read automatically when the app starts. Each line is KEY=VALUE; lines starting with # are comments. A working example shipped with the starter:

DATABASE_TYPE=postgres
DATABASE_NAME=dbname
DATABASE_USER=dbuser
DATABASE_PASSWORD=password
DATABASE_HOST=127.0.0.1
DATABASE_PORT=5432
DATABASE_SSL_MODE=disable

DATABASE_URL="$DATABASE_TYPE://$DATABASE_USER:$DATABASE_PASSWORD@$DATABASE_HOST:$DATABASE_PORT/$DATABASE_NAME?sslmode=$DATABASE_SSL_MODE"

Common variables

• DATABASE_TYPE — one of postgres, mysql, sqlite, mongodb, monetdb.
• DATABASE_URL — a full connection URL. The query builder uses this if present.
• APP_PORT — HTTP port; defaults to 9090.
• APP_ENV — development or production — controls log level defaults.