no-process-env

process.env is global state. If you read it all over a project, nobody can list which variables the project needs, every reader has to deal with a missing or misspelled value, and tests have to change the whole process's environment.

Read the environment in one file, check the values there, and import that file everywhere else. Turn the rule off for that one file.

The rule only checks process.env, not Bun.env or import.meta.env.

ESLint has deprecated this rule. Use n/no-process-env instead.

Examples#

function connect() {
  return open(process.env.DATABASE_URL);
}

import { config } from "./config.js";

function connect() {
  return open(config.databaseUrl);
}

When not to use it#

Reading process.env directly is fine in a small script, or in a project that doesn't keep its configuration in one place.