Dotenv is a feature complete and straightforward direnv alternative for Powershell Core.

It also exposes the parser as a separate project you can use in other code.

Dotenv is stable and feature complete. the project is currently in maintain-only state. That means unless there's significant demand for a feature, only bug-fixes and other improvements will be added.

• Complete syntax support including multiline strings and string interpolation.
• Works on any platform where Powershell Core runs.
• Logging with configurable log levels.
• Option to turn the module on and off on the fly.
• Option to add/remove custom filenames for auto sourcing of env files.
• A subset of bash-like parameter expansion: $val, ${val}, ${val?error}, ${val+replacement} and ${val-default}.
• Opt-in safe mode where files have to be explicitly allowd.
• Smart loading and unloading env variables: you won't lose the previously set values upon unloading, the "replaced" values are remembered and kindly reset to their original values.
• It just works the way you'd expect it to.

This module aims to provide the same functionality as direnv.

Add Update-Dotenv in your Prompt function and as you navigate directories, Dotenv will source the appropriate env files in the current directory and its parents.

The parsing of the env files is done in C# with a hand-written parser.

Dotenv, when there are env files under $PWD or its parents, adds about 1-10 milliseconds to the prompt, which itself takes about 5-20 milliseconds (on my machine). If no env files are detected, there's pretty much no overhead.

You have 3 options:

First add my bucket to scoop:

scoop bucket add insomnia https://github.com/insomnimus/scoop-bucket

Update scoop:

scoop update

Install the module:

scoop install ps-dotenv

Simply download the latest release from the releases page.

Download Dotenv.zip, extract and put the Dotenv directory under your $PSModulePath as with any other module.

Make sure you have all the requirements installed:

• git: To clone the repository.
• dotnet cli with dotnet 6.0 or above: To build the project.
• Powershell version 6.0 or above: To run the build script.

To build the project, run the commands below.

git clone https://github.com/insomnimus/ps-dotenv
cd ps-dotenv
git checkout main # This is sometimes required.
./build.ps1 -release
# Now import the module.
Import-Module ./build/Dotenv

For the env files to be automatically sourced, you'll need to configure your prompt to let Dotenv know you possibly changed directories.

You don't need to check if the current directory changed or if there are files that must be loaded since Dotenv takes care of that for you by keeping its own state. If you don't have a powershell profile setup yet, please read this article from Microsoft first.

Important: Dotenv is disabled by default. You need to enable it with Enable-Dotenv in your powershell profile.

First, add this in your profile (don't forget to replace C:\example\dotenv with the actual path to the folder you built in above steps, or if Dotenv is in your module directory, replace the path with Dotenv):

Import-Module C:\example\dotenv
Enable-Dotenv # this is important, by default the module is disabled

Depending on if you have a custom prompt follow one of the following steps:

You just have to add the following snippet inside your prompt function:

# We check if the command exists to not cause errors.
if(Test-Path function:/Update-Dotenv) { Dotenv\Update-Dotenv }

In your powershell profile, define a new prompt (the snippet below is the built-in prompt with dotenv enabled):

function prompt {
	# Print the built-in prompt:
	$(if (Test-Path variable:/PSDebugContext) { '[DBG]: ' }
		else { '' }) + 'PS ' + $(Get-Location) +
	$(if ($NestedPromptLevel -ge 1) { '>>' }) + '> '

	# We check if the command exists to not cause any errors.
	if(Test-Path function:/Update-Dotenv) { Dotenv\Update-Dotenv }
}

• All in one page
• Individual command docs
• Syntax

• Read-Dotenv: Parses an env file.
• Disable-Dotenv: Disables the module without removing it from the session.
• Enable-Dotenv: Enables the module back.
• Update-Dotenv: Triggers the module to check for env files in the current and parent directories.
• Approve-DotenvDir: Whitelists a directory for dotenv.
• Approve-DotenvFile: Whitelists a particular env file for dotenv.
• Deny-DotenvFile: Unauthorizes an env file.
• Register-DotenvName: Adds a new name to the list of env file names this module will check for.
• Unregister-DotenvName: Removes a name from the list of names this module will consider as an env file.
• Add-DotenvPattern: Adds a glob pattern to the whitelist.
• Remove-DotenvPattern: Removes a pattern from the dotenv whitelist.