---
url: /docs/replacements/dotenv.md
description: >-
  Native Node.js alternatives to the dotenv package for loading and managing
  .env files in Node.js
---

# Replacements for `dotenv`

## `process.loadEnvFile` (native, since Node.js v20.12.0)

[`process.loadEnvFile`](https://nodejs.org/api/process.html#processloadenvfilepath) (Node.js v20.12.0+) loads a `.env` file into `process.env` at runtime.

It throws if the file is missing. Defaults to `.env` in the current working directory when called without a path.

```ts
import dotenv from 'dotenv' // [!code --]

dotenv.config({ path: '.env' }) // [!code --]
process.loadEnvFile('.env') // [!code ++]
```

## `--env-file` / `--env-file-if-exists` (native, Node.js)

[`--env-file`](https://nodejs.org/dist/latest-v20.x/docs/api/cli.html#--env-fileconfig) (Node.js v20.6.0+) and [`--env-file-if-exists`](https://nodejs.org/docs/latest-v22.x/api/cli.html#--env-file-if-existsfile) (Node.js v22.9.0+) can be passed as command-line flags to load environment variables from a specified file.

`--env-file` throws if the file is missing. If the file may be absent, use `--env-file-if-exists`.

```bash
node --env-file=.env index.js
```

Also supported by:

* [tsx](https://github.com/privatenumber/tsx)
* [Bun](https://bun.sh/docs/runtime/env#manually-specifying-env-files)
* [Deno](https://docs.deno.com/runtime/reference/env_variables/#.env-file)

Remove dotenv preload:

```ts
import 'dotenv/config' // [!code --]
// No import needed when using --env-file
```

Remove explicit dotenv config:

```ts
import dotenv from 'dotenv' // [!code --]

dotenv.config({ path: '.env' }) // [!code --]
// No runtime configuration needed
```

In package.json scripts:

```json
{
  "scripts": {
    "start": "node index.js", // [!code --]
    "start": "node --env-file=.env index.js" // [!code ++]
  }
}
```

## Node.js `parseEnv`

[`parseEnv`](https://nodejs.org/docs/latest-v22.x/api/util.html#utilparseenvcontent) (Node.js v20.12.0+) can be used to parse a `.env` string into an object without loading it into `process.env`.

```ts
import { parse } from 'dotenv' // [!code --]
import { parseEnv } from 'node:util' // [!code ++]

const envContent = '...'

const env = parse(envContent) // [!code --]
const env = parseEnv(envContent) // [!code ++]
```

If the `.env` is a Node.js Buffer, convert it to a string first with `.toString()`.