Wrap a Process

Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.envless.cloud/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

envless run decrypts your variables and launches a child process with them set in the environment. No files are written, no imports added, and the variables disappear when the process exits.

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Basic usage

envless run -- npm start
envless run -- node server.js
envless run -- python manage.py runserver

Anything after -- is the command to run. Envless populates the child’s environment, execs the command, and forwards its exit code.

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Picking an environment

envless run --env production -- node server.js
envless run --env staging,development -- npm test

If you’ve linked multiple environments and don’t pass --env, the first one in .envless is used (with a warning).

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In package.json

Wrap your existing scripts so teammates don’t have to think about it:

{
    "scripts": {
        "dev": "envless run -- next dev",
        "start": "envless run --env production -- next start",
        "test": "envless run --env test -- vitest"
    }
}

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When to pick run over the other modes

Use run

You want one-shot injection, nothing persisted, works with any language.

Use runtime

Node/Bun/Edge apps where you want typed env.X and no CLI step at runtime.

Use sync

You need .env.<slug> files for Docker, Rails, Python, or shell scripts.

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CI / production

The same command works in CI — provide a personal access key instead of a cached login:

export ENVLESS_TOKEN=ev_live_xxxxxxxxxxxx
envless run --env production -- node server.js

See CI/CD & Production for full setups.

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What it does under the hood

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Notes

• Variables are never written to disk.
• The child sees them via standard process.env.
• envless run exits non-zero if the bundle can’t be fetched or decrypted — fail fast in CI.