create react app not picking up .env files?

Question

I am using create react app to bootstrap my app.

I have added two .env files .env.development and .env.production in the root.

My .env.development includes:

API_URL=http://localhost:3000/api
CALLBACK_URL=http://localhost:3005/callback

When I run my app using react-scripts start and console out process.env it spits out

{ NODE_ENV: "development", PUBLIC_URL: "" }

I've tried different things, but its just not picking up the veriables in my development file, what am I doing wrong?!

Directry structure is:

/.env.development
/src/index.js

Package.json script is:

"start": "export PORT=3005; npm-run-all --parallel server:start client:start",
    "client:start": "export PORT=3005; react-scripts start",
    "server:start": "node server.js",
    "build": "react-scripts build",

Edit:

@jamcreencia correctly pointed out my variables should be prefixed with REACT_APP.

Edit 2

It works okay if I name the file .env but not if I use .env.development or .end.production

Answer 1

With create react app, you need to prefix REACT_APP_ to the variable name. ex:

REACT_APP_API_URL=http://localhost:3000/api
REACT_APP_CALLBACK_URL=http://localhost:3005/callback

CRA Docs on Adding Custom Environment Variables:

Note: You must create custom environment variables beginning with REACT_APP_. Any other variables except NODE_ENV will be ignored to avoid accidentally exposing a private key on the machine that could have the same name

Answer 2

Make sure your .env file is in the root directory, not inside src folder.

Answer 3

Had this same problem! The solution was to close the connection to my node server (you can do this with CTRL + C). Then re-start your server with 'npm run start' and .env should work properly.

Source: Github

Answer 4

If you want to use multiple environment like .env.development .env.production

use dotenv-cli package

add .env.development and .env.production in project root folder

and your package.json

"scripts": {
    "start": "react-app-rewired start",
    "build-dev": "dotenv -e .env.development react-app-rewired build",
    "build-prod": "dotenv -e .env.production react-app-rewired build",
    "build": "react-app-rewired build",
    "test": "react-app-rewired test --env=jsdom",
    "eject": "react-scripts eject"   
},

then build according to environment like

npm run-script build-dev 

Answer 5

Regarding env-cmd. As per VMois's kind post on gitHub, env-cmd has been updated ( version 9.0.1 as of writing ), environment variables will work as follows on your React project:

"scripts": {
    "build:local": "env-cmd -f ./.env.production.local npm run build",
    "build:production": "env-cmd -f ./.env.production npm run build"
  }

In your package.json file.

Answer 6

I was having the same problem, but it was because I had my .env file in YAML format instead of JS.

It was

REACT_APP_API_PATH: 'https://my.api.path'

but it needed to be

REACT_APP_API_PATH = 'https://my.api.path'

Answer 7

For this purpose there is env-cmd module. Install via npm npm i env-cmd then in your package.json file in scripts section:

  "scripts": {
    "start": "env-cmd .env.development react-scripts start",
    "build": "GENERATE_SOURCEMAP=false env-cmd .env.production react-scripts build",
  }

In your project root you have to create two files with the same env variables but with different values:

.env.development
.env.production

Then exclude them from public. For this in your .gitignore file add two lines:

.env.development
.env.production

So this is a proper way to use different env variables for dev and prod.

Answer 8

For people who apply all those answers above and didn't work just restart the terminal of npm start, stop the live server and run it again and it will work because it works for me

Answer 9

If the .env file works but .env.development or .env.production don't, then create an empty .env file alongside those two. I don't know why but this works for me.

Answer 10

And remember not to have semi-colon after the API key in the env-file.

REACT_APP_API_KEY = 'ae87cec695cc4heheh639d06c9274a';

should be

REACT_APP_API_KEY = 'ae87cec695cc44heheh1639d06c9274a'

that was my error

Answer 11

when you get undefined from the environment file then just stop the terminal and restarts with npm start command.

Answer 12

For any VS Code users, be aware that the .env.local env file is auto-sourced, but also auto-ignored from search results when you do a project wide search for MY_ENV_VAR(probably due to it being git ignored by default). This means that if you have MY_ENV_VAR= in your .env.local like me and forgot about it, it'll break things and you'll spend 15 mins being very confused.

Answer 13

While working with .env file, be it frontend or backend.

• Whenever you modify the .env file, you must restart the respective server for the changes to take effect in the application.
• Hot reloading doesn't read changes from .env file.

Answer 14

I didn't get any value back as well. For some reason, I thought the environment file should be dev.env, qa.env etc. Actually, it's just ".env". That's that. In case some else makes this mistake.

Answer 15

Was struggling for a good hour before I noticed my kind IDE added an import:

import * as process from "process";

just remove it and you're fine, if that's your case as well.

Answer 16

create-react does not supports hot reload feature .env files since they are not Javascript. So, when you change the env files make sure to manually start your server to see the effect of new changes.

In my case, a manual restart of the server worked fine :)

Answer 17

As of latest react-scripts (3.2.0) it's a simple as putting say

PORT=4000
BROWSER=none

in your .env or .env.development file (..etc) which is supposed to be in the root folder.

It will NOT work with then REACT_APP prefix (the docs are outdated I guess) and it does NOT require any extra npm packages (react-scripts already includes dotenv 6.2.0)