Environment Variable Manager: Secure & Streamlined Configuration for Teams

Environment Variable Manager is a full-stack platform designed to simplify and secure the process of managing environment variables across different projects and team members. The project provides an intuitive web interface and a powerful CLI that work together to help developers store, organize, and share sensitive configuration variables with ease.

Built with modern web technologies, it offers self-hosting capabilities, fine-grained access control, and real-time syncing between the UI and CLI, making it an ideal solution for teams handling multiple environments or microservices.

Key Features

• Team Management: Collaborate securely with teammates using role-based access control. Invite members, assign roles (Owner, Contributor, Guest), and restrict access per project or environment.

• CLI Integration: The official env-manager CLI provides seamless push and pull operations. Developers can sync variables directly to their .env files in seconds, with built-in JWT authentication and TOTP 2FA support.

• Self-Hosting Ready: Built with Docker in mind, the entire platform can be self-hosted on your own infrastructure, ensuring full control over your data and deployment environment.

Technical Stack

Front-End:

• SvelteKit: The web dashboard is built with SvelteKit, offering blazing-fast interactivity and a smooth user experience. Svelte’s reactive design allows real-time updates and clean state handling across the app.

• TailwindCSS: TailwindCSS powers the styling, enabling a minimal, modern, and responsive UI with utility-first classes. Components are styled to match a developer-centric aesthetic with terminal-like themes and animations.

Back-End:

• SvelteKit API Routes: Server-side routes handle project, variable, and user management logic, with strong typing and validation. The backend also serves real-time WebSocket connections to sync log messages and status updates.

• PostgreSQL: All data — from project definitions and environment variables to audit logs — is stored securely in a PostgreSQL database. Sensitive values are encrypted before storage.

• JWT & TOTP Authentication: The platform uses JSON Web Tokens (JWT) for secure sessions and supports Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) via TOTP (like Google Authenticator) to enhance security.

CLI & Real-Time Logging

The CLI is written with Bun, allowing fast, native TypeScript execution. It interacts with the backend over secure HTTP and WebSocket connections to provide real-time feedback when variables are pushed or pulled.

A dedicated dashboard logs all CLI operations, showing variable syncs, timestamps, and actor metadata. This is especially useful for audits or debugging configuration issues across environments.

Project Structure & Self-Hosting

The system is entirely containerized using Docker and easily deployable on any Linux server. With a single Docker Compose file, users can bring up the platform with all its dependencies. It also supports reverse proxy setups with Cloudflare Tunnel for secure public access.

Conclusion

Environment Variable Manager solves a common pain point in modern development teams: securely managing and sharing sensitive configuration data. By combining a user-friendly interface with a powerful CLI, it bridges the gap between development workflows and infrastructure security. Whether you’re managing a small project or coordinating multiple environments in a large organization, this tool is designed to scale with you.